BX  5057    .F74  1914 
Frere,  Walter  Howard,  1863- 
1938. 

English  church  ways 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/englishchurchwayOOfrer 


ENGLISH   CHURCH  WAYS 


ENGLISH  CHURCH  WAYS 


DESCRIBED  TO  RUSSIAN  FRIENDS  IN 
FOUR  LECTURES  DELIVERED 
AT  ST.  PETERSBURG, 
IN  MARCH,  1914 

OCT 


By  W.  H.  FRERE,  D.D 

OF  THE  COMMUNITY  OF  THE  RESURRECTION 


MILWAUKEE 
THE  YOUNG  CHURCHMAN  COMPANY 
1914 


ANALYSIS 


Lecture  I.  Introduction  i,  2  :  the  traditional  separation  of 
Eastern  and  Western  Christendom  3,  4  :  the  English  Church  is 
rooted  in  Western  traditions,  but  with  a  fixed  policy  of 
ecclesiastical  inclusiveness  5-1 1  :  its  revolt  from  the  W'estern 
tradition  of  papalism  has  brought  it  nearer  to  the  Eastern 
Church,  11-13  :  and  its  revulsion  from  mediaeval  scholasticism 
and  legalism,  13-16  :  the  nature  of  the  English  reformation,  in 
similarity  and  in  fourfold  contrast  with  the  continental  revolt, 
16-20  :  the  bearing  of  this  on  Russian  sympathies,  20.  The 
nature  of  the  government  of  the  English  Church,  its  endowment, 
relation  to  the  State,  and  internal  organization,  20-23  :  ideals 
of  the  episcopate,  and  actual  administration,  diocesan  and 
cathedral  staff,  23,  24. 

Lecture  II.  The  English  parochial  system  in  history,  26, 
27  :  the  advent  of  a  new  parish  priest,  27-29  :  his  ideals  as 
servant  and  ruler,  29,  30  :  his  care  as  pastor,  30-32  :  his  ideals 
about  worship  and  church  services,  32-37  :  those  prescribed  and 
those  additional,  35-37  :  his  ideals  as  a  teacher,  37-39  :  before 
Confirmation  and  First  Communion,  39-44  :  his  plans  of  organi- 
sation, protective  and  stimulative,  44,  45  :  his  work  of  rescue 
and  recovery,  45,  46  :  the  relief  of  poverty,  46-48  :  his  helpers, 
48  :  his  spiritual  power,  49.  The  parishioner's  ideal  of  his 
parish,  49-51. 

Lecture  III.  The  Ministry  of  the  English  Church,  the 
diaconate,  52,  53  :  the  part  taken  in  training  the  clergy  by  the 
universities  and  the  Theological  Colleges,  52-54  :  the  social 
origin  of  the  clergy,  54,  55  :  their  general  education,  55-57  : 
student  life  in  the  older  universities,  57,  58  :  in  theological 
colleges,  58,  59.     The  training,   theological,    practical,  and 


VI 


ANALYSIS 


devotional,  59-62.  The  preliminaries  to  ordination,  62-64  :  the 
Ember  days  and  the  Ordination  itself,  64-67.  The  young  priest 
as  an  assistant  curate  and  as  a  curate  in  charge,  67,  68.  Patron- 
age, appointment  of  bishop  and  his  consecration,  68-71  :  appoint- 
ment of  parish  priests,  71,  72.  The  cathedral  system,  73-75  : 
Convocation,  75-78. 

Lecture  IV.  The  recovery  of  community  life  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  79  :  the  successive  Revivals  that  led  up  to  it, 
79-82  :  the  monastic  ideals  are  Western,  through  their  history, 
82-84  :  and  much  influenced  by  the  Friars  and  the  later  Western 
Orders,  84-86.  Different  types  of  modern  English  Religious 
Orders,  86-89.  Parochial  Missions,  88-98.  Recent  missions  at 
Universities,  98,  99.  Retreats,  99-102.  Conventions,  102,  103. 
The  active  side  of  English  church  life,  103,  104  :  its  defects 
acknowledged,  104  :  its  difference  from  the  Russian  ideals,  104, 
105  :  a  defence  of  its  activity,  its  diversity,  and  modern  spirit. 


PREFACE 


These  Four  Lectures  were  written  at  Riga  in 
February,  1914,  to  be  delivered  the  month  following 
to  a  mixed  audience,  mainly  Russian  but  partly 
also  drawn  from  the  English  residents,  at  the  invita- 
tion of  the  Russian  Society  for  promoting  Rap- 
prochement between  the  Anglican  and  Eastern- 
Orthodox  Churches.  They  are  descriptive  of  a 
state  of  things  familiar  to  English  Churchmen  but 
less  well  known  abroad.  In  spite  of  this,  however,  it 
is  thought  that  they  may  meet  with  some  readers  in 
England  also,  partly  out  of  interest  in  the  growing 
friendship  between  the  English  and  Russian  church 
leaders  and  partly  because  of  the  importance  of  the 
subjects  treated. 

They  are  not  concerned  with  great  points  of  theo- 
logy or  history,  as  were  those  which  Father  Puller 
gave  in  similar  circumstances  in  May,  191 2,  and 
has  since  published  both  in  Russian  and  in 
English.1  But  on  the  basis  secured  by  his  work 
they  attempt  to  make  a  contribution  to  the  process 
of  edifying  of  one  another  in  love  which  is  now 
happily  bringing  English  and  Russian  Churchmen 
into  closer  and  more  brotherly  relations. 

The  lectures  were  written  to  be  read  sentence  by 
sentence  alternately  with  a  Russian  translation 
which  Mr.  Nicholai  Lodygensky  had  prepared. 
They  are  printed  substantially  as  they  were  de- 
livered, without  any  attempt  to  alter  the  somewhat 
staccato  style,  which  was  necessitated  by  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case,  or  to  change  the  matter  or 

1.  The  Continuity  of  the  English  Church. 


viii 


PREFACE 


the  presentment  of  the  position.  If  they  are  to  be 
printed  in  English  at  all,  readers  will  wish  to  know 
what  was  actually  said,  and  how  the  lecturer 
acquitted  himself  of  the  very  difficult  task  of  trying 
to  describe  such  a  complex  and  protean  life  as  that 
of  the  English  Church  of  to-day. 

Those  who  have  read  Father  Puller's  book  will 
know  what  generosity  awaited  him  in  Russia  and 
with  what  enthusiasm  his  lectures  were  received. 
His  successor  can  testify  that  that  enthusiasm  has 
by  no  means  abated,  and  that  he  himself  received 
no  less  generous  a  welcome.  Mr.  Sabler,  the  Ober 
Procuror  of  the  Holy  Synod,  made  himself,  as 
before,  the  patron  of  the  lectures,  and  on  each  occa- 
sion the  host  of  the  evening,  welcoming  us  to  his 
official  house,  entertaining  us  with  every  manifesta- 
tion of  official  and  personal  kindness  :  and  relieving 
the  monotony  of  two  alternately  reading  voices  by 
bringing  in  the  Students  from  the  Academy  and 
the  Seminary  to  sing  at  intervals  some  of  the 
wonderful  Russian  church  music,  in  the  inimitable 
Russian  way. 

It  was  a  great  cause  of  regret  that  Archbishop 
Serge,  of  Finland,  the  President  of  the  Russian 
Society,  was  prevented  at  the  last  moment  by  bereave- 
ment and  illness  from  being  present.  But  the  patron- 
age of  other  bishops  did  what  was  possible  to  fill 
up  the  gap  :  and  we  English  Churchmen  may  well 
be  much  encouraged  by  the  interest  which  was 
openly  shewn  in  the  Lectures  and  their  subject  by 
the  Metropolitan  of  St.  Petersburg,  and  a  number 
of  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops. 

There  was  less  occasion  afforded  this  time  than 
by  Father  Puller's  course  for  formal  conferences 
such  as  he  had  with  clergy  and  professors :  but 
those  who  were  most  keenly  interested  appreciated 
the  benefits  that  had  resulted  from  them  and  were 


PREFACE 


anxious  that  in  some  degree  conferences  should  con- 
tinue. Accordingly  Bishop  Anatolius,  one  of  the 
suffragans  of  the  Metropolitan,  was  good  enough  to 
summon  a  small  conference,  and  to  preside  for  i\ 
hours  over  a  discussion  ;  which,  while  ranging  very 
wide,  was  kept  within  bounds  bv  his  tactful  chair- 
manship, and  led  to  a  good  deal  of  further  mutual 
understanding  and  appreciation. 

Other  lectures  of  a  less  formal  character  were 
given  at  Riga,  Polotsk,  Moscow,  and  in  the 
Academy  at  the  famous  Troitza  Monastery  :  and 
these  in  most  cases  led  to  some  considerable  and 
valuable  discussion.  But  they  were  not  suited  to 
the  press,  and  the  general  character  of  what  was 
said  may  be  gathered  from  the  more  formal  course 
of  lectures  which  is  here  printed. 

The  lecturer's  object  was  to  describe  an  existing 
state  of  things,  but  also  to  state  ideals;  therefore 
while  not  disguising  shortcomings,  he  has  attempted 
to  make  a  picture  rather  than  a  photograph.  Such 
a  process  necessarily  involves  the  adoption  of  a 
particular  point  of  view  and  the  presentment  of  a 
personal  outlook  :  but  he  has  done  his  best  to  secure 
that  the  outlook  should  not  be  narrow  or  partisan, 
but  should  combine  many  of  the  features  of  a  very 
varied  landscape. 

The  lectures  may  now  be  regarded  as  forming 
part  of  a  series,  for  they  succeeded  Father  Pullers 
and  are  now  in  their  turn  to  be  followed  bv  others. 
For  it  is  hoped  by  the  English  Society — The 
Anglican  and  Eastern-Orthodox  Churches  Union1 
— that  we  may  have  the  advantage  of  some  lectures 
in  England  on  the  Russian  Church  given  by  two 

1.  This  Society  exists  to  unite  members  of  the  Anglican  Com- 
munion in  efforts  of  rapprochement  with  the  Eastern  Orthodox 
Churches.  The  Hon.  Secretary  is  the  Rev.  H.  J.  Fynes-Clinton, 
of  27,  Finsbury  Square,  London,  E.C. 


X 


PREFACE 


distinguished  Russian  Churchmen,  as  well  as  see 
the  Petersburg  Lectures  carried  on  this  winter  by  a 
course  to  be  given  by  Dr.  Darwell  Stone. 

This  little  set  owes  much  to  the  help  and  criticism 
of  the  translator,  Mr.  Lodygensky,  who  is  the  heart 
and  centre  of  the  movement  in  Russia,  of  Mme. 
Alexeieff,  and  of  Mr.  Paul  Mansouroff,  whom  the 
writer  desires  to  thank  very  heartily,  and  whose 
friendship  is  among  the  most  valuable  acquisitions 
that  he  has  carried  away  from  his  last  visit  to 
Russia. 


LECTURE  I. 


The  Anglican  Communion. 

In  these  lectures  my  task  is  to  give  some  account  of 
life  in  the  Anglican  Communion,  and  particularly 
in  the  English  Church  to  which  I  belong.  I  am 
very  grateful  to  the  Society  and  to  its  Most 
Reverend  president,  the  Archbishop  of  Finland  for 
the  invitation  and  for  the  opportunity  of  coming  to 
learn  more  about  the  Russian  Church.  This  is  a 
feeling  which  is  shared  by  very  many  of  us  in  Eng- 
land and  America  and  Africa  and  elsewhere.  My 
own  Community  to  which  I  belong — the  Com- 
munity of  the  Resurrection  which  has  its  Mother- 
House  at  Mirfield — was  very  glad  to  send  me  for 
this  work.  Our  Bishop — the  Bishop  of  Wakefield 
who  was  in  Petersburg  with  the  English  visitors 
two  years  ago — is  also  very  much  interested  :  and 
before  I  left  home  he  not  only  gave  me  his  blessing 
for  the  work,  but  he  wrote  also  a  number  of  intro- 
ductions for  me  to  Russian  friends  whose  acquaint- 
ance he  had  made  when  he  was  here.  Our  Metro- 
politan of  All  England  also — the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury — has  sent  with  me  a  letter  of  recommen- 
dation, and  a  private  letter  cordially  wishing  God- 
speed. These  are  a  few  proofs  of  the  great  interest 
which  is  developing  in  England  about  all  that  con- 
cerns the  Russian  Church.  There  is  nothing 
official  in  all  this.  I  am  sent  here  simply  because 
you  have  asked  some  one  to  come  and  give  these 


2         THE  LIVING  CHURCH  AND  HISTORY 


lectures :  so  I  come  most  gladly  again  to  Russia. 
Already  in  two  short  visits  I  have  learnt  to  love 
your  country,  your  services,  and  your  Church.  So 
I  must  do  my  best  with  a  task  to  which  I  am  very 
unequal,  and  I  ask  your  prayers  that  I  may  not  by 
my  unworthiness  spoil  a  good  work. 

The  Church  of  England  is  my  home,  and  its 
members  are  my  brothers.  It  is  not  easy  to  de- 
scribe one's  home  and  family.  Sometimes  one  sees 
its  faults  too  plainly  :  sometimes  one  magnifies  its 
merits.  It  is  hard  to  see  things  fairly  or  to  describe 
them  in  their  right  proportion.  Pray,  therefore, 
for  me  that  I  may  speak  the  truth  in  love  :  for  St. 
Paul  tells  us  that  it  is  by  so  doing  that  we  can  grow 
up  unto  Him  in  all  things,  who  is  the  Head  of  all 
the  members,  even  Jesus  Christ  Himself.  (Eph. 
iv.  15). 

A  description  of  Life  in  the  Anglican  Church, 
if  it  is  to  be  understood,  must  go  closely  together 
with  the  remembrance  of  its  history.  I  have  not 
the  theological  learning  of  Fr.  Puller,  who  lectured 
here  two  years  ago,  and  for  many  points,  I  am  glad 
to  be  able  to  refer  to  his  book,  which  is  now  pub- 
lished in  Russian,  as  giving  better  information  than 
I  can  give.  But  I  have  been  attracted  for  many 
years  now  by  the  study  of  church  history  and  of 
liturgical  science;  and  I  have  given  to  these  what 
time  I  could  find  free  in  the  intervals  of  a  busy  prac- 
tical life.  So  I  shall  hope  in  the  course  of  the 
lectures  to  take  much  notice  of  history  and  causes 
as  well  as  of  the  present  condition  of  the  English 
Church. 


EAST  AND  WEST 


3 


First  we  must  call  to  mind  how  long  and  how 
widely  the  East  and  the  West  have  developed 
separately.  When  Diocletian  divided  the  Roman 
Empire  he  did  far  more  harm  to  the  Christian 
Church  than  when  he  persecuted  it.  For  thencefor- 
ward the  two  parts  of  the  Empire  went  their  own 
way  in  religious  as  well  as  in  secular  matters.  The 
West  ceased  to  understand  the  East ;  and  the  East 
failed  to  understand  the  West.  Differences  of  tem- 
perament were  magnified  by  this;  and  thence  came 
endless  harm. 

Consequently  nothing  is  more  necessary  than 
that  East  and  West  should  again  understand  one 
another:  and  few  things  are  more  difficult.  The 
difficulty  is  specially  great  for  us  British  people. 
We  are  at  the  extreme  edge  of  the  West  in  tempera- 
ment, as  well  as  in  geography.  We  have  de- 
veloped much  practical  ability,  but  have  sacrificed 
much  in  doing  so  :  we  have  as  a  nation  little  artistic 
feeling,  little  sense  of  the  unseen,  little  faculty  for 
symbolism  and  mysticism,  a  zeal  for  practical 
morality  but  little  gift  for  theology.1 

In  Russia  you  have  much  of  these  very  things 
that  we  lack.  Often  what  we  admire  does  not  seem 
to  you  to  be  of  value ;  and  the  ways  of  thought  and 
life — particularly  in  religion — which  are  natural  to 
you,  are  unfamiliar  to  us,  and  difficult  for  us  to 
understand.  And  yet  we  are  being  led,  in  the  pro- 
vidence of  God,  towards  the  happiness  of  getting  to 
know  one  another  better.  God  be  with  us  !  and  we 
will  do  our  best,  remembering  that  in  the  Body  of 
Christ  the  members  are  not  all  alike,  and  all  have 


4 


BRITISH  CHRISTIANITY 


not  the  same  office,  but  yet  each  has  its  own 
peculiar  part  to  play  in  the  life  of  the  whole. 

Already  when  that  fateful  division  of  the  Empire 
was  made,  England  had  received  its  first  Christian 
teaching.  A  little  time  ago  there  were  found  in  a 
buried  Roman  city  in  the  South  of  England  the 
foundations  of  a  Christian  church,  which  probably 
go  back  to  that  time.  No  British  bishops  were  at 
the  First  General  Council  of  Nicaea  in  325,  but 
eleven  years  earlier  three  of  them  had  been  at  the 
important  local  Council  of  Aries  (314),  probably  one 
from  London,  one  from  York,  and  one  from  else- 
where. These  two  facts  together  are  significant : 
for  they  seem  to  forecast  how  entirely  British  Chris- 
tianity was  to  be,  for  many  centuries,  rooted  in  the 
Western  Church,  and  without  any  touch  with  the 
Eastern. 

In  the  days  of  Diocletian,  too,  the  first  known 
martyrdoms  in  our  country  took  place.  St.  Alban, 
the  protomartyr  of  England,  then  died  for  Christ, 
and  his  name  stands  at  the  head  of  a  goodly  list  of 
saints,  martyrs  and  confessors.  The  old  city  of 
those  days,  where  he  was  martyred,  still  exists,  and 
is  now  called  by  his  name;  the  great  church  of  the 
martyr  still  stands,  although  the  abbey  was  de- 
stroyed and  the  shrine  was  devastated  during  the 
troubles  of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  recent  years 
(1877)  it  has  become  the  cathedral  church  of  a 
diocese,  and  so  has  reached  a  distinction  which  it 
never  had  before.  Also  many  churches  built  in 
recent  times  have  been  dedicated  to  the  protomartyr 
of  England. 


VARIETY  IN  FELLOWSHIP 


5 


Thus  the  traditions  of  the  English  Church  were 
founded,  and  thus  they  continue  to-day,  in  faith  and 
worship  and  in  self-sacrifice.  Since  then  our 
nation  has  combined  many  different  elements. 
When  the  Roman  Imperial  Army  was  withdrawn, 
the  heathen  Teutons  came  pouring  in,  Angles  and 
Saxons  and  Jutes  especially.  All  these  had  to  be 
assimilated  and  christianized.  A  good  deal  later 
came  the  Danes,  also  as  heathen ;  and  there  were 
more  martyrs  for  the  faith,  including  a  king  and  an 
archbishop.  That  was  the  last  of  heathen  in- 
vasions, but  other  peoples  came  as  Christians  to 
add  to  the  diversity  of  the  English  race,  especially 
the  Norman  conquerors,  and  in  later  days  at  various 
times  the  Flemish  immigrants.  All  this  has  had  a 
lasting  effect  on  England  and  English  religion.  It 
has  filled  England  with  groups  of  men,  differing  in 
race  and  temper  and  outlook  :  but  also  it  has  taught 
Englishmen,  in  spite  of  their  differences,  to  live  to- 
gether in  peace.  In  our  politics  great  differences  of 
party  exist,  but  patriotism  unites  them  all  the  same. 
Similarly  in  religious  matters  there  is  great  variety ; 
but  a  common  Christian  fellowship.  Even  between 
the  English  Church  and  Nonconformists,  though 
the  points  of  separation  are  wide  and  deep,  there  is 
a  great  and  growing  brotherhood.  Also  within  the 
one  English  Church  there  are  different  tendencies 
and  even  parties ;  but  these  do  not  make  different 
bodies.  All  parties  in  the  English  Church  belong 
to  the  One  Church,  and  acknowledge  the  same 
Faith,  Ministry  and  Discipline.  They  can  afford 
to  differ  as  they  do,  about  the  smaller  things,  be- 


6 


THE  ONE  CHURCH 


cause  they  are  united  upon  all  fundamental  points. 

It  is  necessary  to  insist  upon  this,  because  very 
often  it  is  misunderstood  by  those  who  are  not 
familiar  with  Anglican  affairs.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  High  Church  or  a  Low  Church.  There 
is  only  one  English  Church,  but  in  it  there  are  some 
parties.  Some  are  said  to  belong  to  a  High  Church 
party,  some  to  a  Low  Church  party,  and  some  to 
other  parties.  But  these  are  only  nicknames. 
Often  the  people  to  whom  they  are  applied  would 
disown  them  :  and  most  members  belong  to  no 
party. 

At  the  same  time  it  is  true,  that  differences  of 
opinion  about  secondary  matters  are  more  tolerated 
among  us  than  in  either  of  the  other  branches  of 
the  Holy  Catholic  Church.  I  have  explained  this 
partly  by  the  history  of  our  mixed  race  :  and  this 
explanation  must  not  be  forgotten.  But  we  have 
also  a  traditional  policy  of  inclusiveness  which  we 
have  inherited  from  at  least  twelve  centuries.  Arch- 
bishop Theodore,  the  Greek  monk  from  Tarsus, 
whom  God  sent  to  distant  England  in  668  to  be  one 
of  our  greatest  spiritual  fathers,  he  first  taught  us 
this  policy  of  theological  and  ecclesiastical  charity, 
and  others  have  carried  it  on.  I  do  not  claim  that 
we  have  all  that  time  followed  it  wisely  :  sometimes 
we  have  been  too  narrow,  and  sometimes  again  too 
lax :  the  mean  is  hard  to  hit.  But  the  English 
Church  to-day  is  the  inheritor  of  this  tradition. 
This  must  explain  the  way  in  which  differences  of 
outlook  are  combined  by  us  in  the  one  ecclesiastical 
body,  a  thing  which  many  people  find  it  very 
difficult  to  understand. 


CAUSES  OF  COHESION 


And  if  you  ask  how  it  is  that  we  hold  together,  I 
would  answer  in  this  way.  We  hold  together  be- 
cause there  are  the  great  fundamental  doctrines  and 
practices  about  which  all  agree,  and  the  differences 
that  are  tolerated  are  secondary.  These  funda- 
mental doctrines  and  practices  the  English  Church 
has  persistently  refused  to  surrender:  and  this  re- 
fusal becomes  especially  clear  if  we  recall  the  origin 
of  the  Dissenting  bodies  who  are  separated  from  the 
Church.  There  are  many  sects  in  England,  be- 
cause the  Englishman  is  not  happy  without  some 
form  of  religion.  If  he  disagrees  with  what  he 
finds,  he  thinks  that  he  must  start  some  new  plan. 
It  is  sad,  no  doubt,  that  people  should  break  away 
from  the  Apostolic  Church  :  but,  if  they  do,  it  is  far 
better  that  they  should  not  become  unbelievers  or 
anti-religious,  but  should  remain  believers  in 
Christ.  That  is  what  has  happened.  Those  who 
would  not  go  on  in  the  fundamental  doctrine  and 
discipline  of  the  Holy  Apostolic  Church  have  felt 
obliged  to  leave  it.  The  English  Church  did  not 
say  to  them,  "  You  may  behave  and  believe  as  you 
like,  and  yet  may  remain  with  us."  On  the  con- 
trary, it  said  "  There  are  fundamental  things  which 
you  must  accept.  If  you  accept  them  we  give  you 
as  much  liberty  as  we  can — especially  if  you  are  lay 
people — in  secondary  matters.  But  you  must 
accept  the  fundamental  matters.  Indeed,  until 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  Church,  at  the 
bidding  of  the  State  more  than  for  its  own  reasons, 
did  its  best  to  compel  people  to  conform.  It  was 
too  coercive,  rather  than  too  lax.    Now,  for  more 


8     AN  IDEAL  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  CHARITY 


than  two  hundred  years,  the  State  law  has  permitted 
the  sects.2  This  plan  has  proved  healthier  both  for 
Church  and  State  :  and  it  is  more  likely  to  lead  to  a 
reunion  of  English  Christianity  than  a  policy  of 
coercion  would  be. 

This  ideal  of  ecclesiastical  charity,  which  the 
English  Church  has  inherited  and  has  tried  to 
follow,  has  not  been  a  popular  one.  There  are 
always  those  who  say  on  one  side  "  You  are  too 
narrow"  ;  while  those  on  the  other  side  say  "  You 
are  too  lax."  But  when  we  are  blamed  from  each 
side,  we  think  that  we  are  most  likely  to  be  right. 

I  am  trying  to  explain  all  this  rather  fully,  be- 
cause I  fancy  it  is  not  familiar  to  many  here,  as  it 
is  to  us  at  home ;  and  it  is  necessary  for  anyone 
who  would  understand  our  church  life.  If  it  is  a 
different  way  from  that  to  which  you  are  accus- 
tomed, yet  it  is  the  way  in  which  God  has  led  us. 
It  is  an  ideal  that  has  had  a  great  past  tradition ; 
and  we  Anglicans  believe  that  it  still  has  a  future 
before  it,  and  especially  a  part  to  play  in  the  future 
reunion  of  Christendom,  for  which  we  all  pray. 

Even  if  you  were  to  say,  "  It  is  a  peculiarity ;  we, 
who  are  Orthodox,  do  not  sympathize  with  it,  nor 
do  the  Roman  Catholics  "  ;  then  we  should  reply, 
"  Perhaps  for  that  very  reason  we  must  keep  to  it, 
and  we  must  bring  it  as  our  contribution  to  the 
future  reunion  of  all  branches  of  the  One  Church." 

We  must  now  consider  an  influence  which  has 
made  for  unity  in  the  English  Church,  namely,  its 
place  from  the  first  in  the  Western  organization. 
Its  earliest  evangelists  probably  came  from  Gaul ; 


GREGORY  THE  FOUNDER 


9 


but  at  the  second  founding  of  the  Church,  after  the 
Teutonic  invasions  had  heathenized  the  greater  part 
of  the  country,  the  new  evangelists  came  from 
Rome,  and  from  Gregory  the  Great  the  Pope  him- 
self. He  planned  the  lines  on  which  the  English 
Church  has  ever  since  been  organized.  For  example, 
the  reason  why  we  have  two  provinces  and  two 
archbishops  is  because  St.  Gregory  planned  it  so. 
The  sending  from  Rome  of  St.  Augustine  and  his 
companions  stirred  up  the  British  Christians  in  the 
West  of  England,  in  Ireland,  and  in  the  Scottish 
island  of  Iona  to  join  in  converting  the  heathen  con- 
querors. While  the  British  monks  did  the  best 
part  of  the  evangelization,  the  Roman  missionaries 
and  their  successors  provided  the  sound  schemes  of 
Catholic  organisation,  and  kept  the  Church,  in  its 
infant  days,  in  close  touch  with  Rome — the  centre 
of  Western  Christianity.  Later,  after  an  interval 
during  which  England  with  its  Church  was  out  of 
touch  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  it  was  brought 
again  by  the  Norman  conquest  into  close  connexion 
with  Rome  :  and  it  was  reorganised  on  the  lines  of 
the  great  revival  of  Church  life  which  took  place 
in  the  West  in  the  eleventh  century.  The  arrange- 
ments for  dioceses  and  parishes,  which  then  were 
made,  form  the  basis  of  our  present  arrange- 
ments. The  Church  legal  system  of  that  epoch  is 
what  still  in  a  modified  form  survives  among  us. 
Indeed,  so  far  as  organization  goes  there  is  no  part 
of  the  West  that  retains  so  much  of  the  mediaeval 
system  as  England  does. 

You  will  bear  in  mind,  then,  that  just  at  the  time 


io  OUR  WESTERN  THEOLOGY 


when  the  division  between  the  East  and  West  was 
hardening  into  a  formal  breach  of  intercommunion, 
we  in  England  were  being  reorganised  on  very 
characteristically  Western  lines.  That  reorgani- 
sation largely  subsists  as  the  basis  of  our  present 
organisation.  To  you,  then,  we  must  seem  very 
Roman  in  our  ways  :  that  is  inevitable. 

The  basis  of  our  theology  is  as  conspicuously 
Western  as  the  basis  of  our  organization.  Not  only 
do  we  look  back  to  St.  Gregory  as  our  spiritual  father 
but  behind  him  we  look  to  St.  Leo  in  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, St.  Augustine  in  the  fourth,  and  St.  Cyprian  in 
the  third  as  shaping  the  inherited  form  of  our  theo- 
logical thought.  Again,  in  later  mediaeval  days  we 
have  had  teachers  of  our  own  in  England,  who 
contributed  a  great  deal  to  the  theology  of  the  West. 
Among  them  were  two  of  our  own  Archbishops  of 
Canterbury,  Lanfranc  (f  1089),  the  defender  of 
Eucharistic  doctrine  against  Berengar,  and  his  suc- 
cessor, St.  Anselm  (f  1 109),  a  leading  teacher  about 
the  Nature  of  God  and  a  leading  exponent  of  the 
mystery  of  the  Atonement.  Then  began  the  period 
of  the  scholastic  doctors,  and  among  them  again 
some  of  our  English  divines  were  prominent. 

Our  theology,  therefore,  like  our  organisation,  is 
inevitably  Western  in  its  basis.  I  am  not  saying 
that  this  is  a  good  thing.  It  clearly  is  not ;  for  it 
cannot  be  a  good  thing  to  be  one-sided.  I  am 
merely  stating  the  fact,  as  one  that  must  be  borne  in 
mind  by  you  in  thinking  of  the  English  Church. 
And  speaking  about  ourselves  I  may  add  that  one 
of  the  reasons  why  now,  and  in  earlier  days,  we 


DESIRE  FOR  UNITY 


have  tried  to  know  more  of  the  Eastern  Church,  is 
because  we  wish  to  be  free  of  one-si dedness  :  and  to 
enter  into  a  wider  and  fuller  appreciation  of  that 
common  catholic  and  orthodox  faith,  which  we  all 
alike  hold,  though  we  look  at  it  from  different  angles 
according  to  our  different  history  and  capacity. 

If  we  love  God,  we  are  bound  also  to  love  one 
another  :  and  it  is  love  of  God  and  man  which  will 
bring  back  union  to  the  Church  of  Christ.  This 
loving  desire  for  unity  is  moving  very  strongly 
among  us,  and,  indeed,  all  through  the  world  to- 
day. As  is  said  in  the  Psalm,  "  The  Lord,  the 
most  mighty  God  has  spoken,  and  called  the  world 
from  the  rising  of  the  sun  unto  the  going  down  of 
the  same";  so  God  is  now  calling  us  to  mutual 
knowledge,  friendship  and  love,  at  the  foot  of  His 
Throne. 

But  if  we  are  so  Western  by  tradition,  and 
so  closely  bound  up  with  Rome,  why  have  we 
revolted  ?  I  must  say  a  word  or  two  about  this 
question ;  and  then  I  think  I  can  draw  the  opening 
observations  to  a  close  and  come  to  speak  more  in 
detail  about  our  actual  church  life. 

I  need  not  say  much,  because  the  reasons,  which 
have  led  us  to  revolt  from  the  Roman  obedience, 
are  the  same  reasons  which  have  always  led  you  to 
refuse  to  accept  the  claims  of  Papal  supremacy. 
Fundamentally  we  stand  upon  the  same  ground  as 
you.  We  do  not  find  those  claims  to  be  justified 
by  Holy  Scripture  nor  by  the  tradition  of  the 
Church  as  interpreted  by  the  Great  Councils  and 
the  Holy  Fathers  of  the  undivided  Church.  But 
the  way  in  which  the  English  Church  has  been 


12 


CAUSES  OF  THE  REFORMATION 


brought  to  share  this  common  ground  with  you 
needs  a  little  explanation  for  those  who  are  not 
familiar  with  the  Church  history  of  the  West.  The 
papacy  has  at  times  rendered  immense  service  to 
the  Church  :  but  that  fact  does  not  at  all,  of  neces- 
sity, justify  the  claims  made  on  its  behalf.  After 
the  period  of  the  great  papal  development  in  the 
eleventh,  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  came  two 
centuries  in  which  the  West  gravely  questioned 
whether  that  development  was  justifiable.  In  its 
simplest  form  the  matter  resolved  itself  into  the 
question  whether  the  Pope  was,  or  was  not,  superior 
to  a  General  Council.  The  question  was  debated  in 
a  series  of  Western  Councils :  and  so  far  as 
Councils  were  concerned,  the  Pope  ultimately  won 
the  battle.  But  the  victory  was  not  a  real  one,  as 
the  sixteenth  century  showed.  First  one  part  and 
then  another  part  of  Western  Europe  revolted, 
partly  against  the  theory  of  the  papal  supremacy, 
and  partly  against  the  practical  abuses  of  that  day 
which  seemed  to  be  inextricably  bound  up  with  the 
theory.  England,  which  had  long  felt  deeply 
about  those  practical  abuses,  seized  an  opportunity 
to  revolt.  The  opportunity  was  given  by  a  private 
and  unsavory  personal  quarrel  of  a  bad  English 
king  (Henry  VIII.) :  but  the  causes  lay  deep  down, 
while  the  movement  had  long  been  maturing  under 
the  surface.  They  were  partlv  theological,  partly 
practical,  partly  national.  There  was  bad  mixed 
with  good  in  them  :  but  they  were  effective  :  and 
except  for  a  brief  reaction  of  5|  vears  under  Queen 
Mary,  the  revolt  was  lasting  and  permanent. 


NATURE  OF  THE  REVOLT 


13 


Consider,  then,  what  was  involved  in  our  English 
Reformation.  We  had  not,  like  the  Eastern 
Church,  a  tradition  of  resistance  to  the  papal 
claims.  We  had  to  break  with  our  tradition.  That 
involved  a  violent  revolution  of  feeling;  and  changes 
followed  that  were  hasty  and  too  sweeping.  To  me 
the  Reformation  seems  like  a  surgical  operation. 
It  was  dangerous,  but  it  was  necessary  :  it  involved 
the  loss  of  much — even  of  life  blood — but  that  was 
inevitable.  It  has  won  a  new  lease  of  life  :  but 
there  was  needed  a  long  time  in  which  to  recover 
from  the  effects  of  the  operation,  and  to  get  back  to 
strength  and  a  more  vigorous  health.  God  in 
His  mercy  has  given  us  in  these  last  four  hundred 
years  a  steady  though  slow  recovery.  We  have  had 
our  advances ;  and  then  we  have  had  relapses  again. 
But  the  church  life  of  to-day  as  I  shall  try  to  de- 
scribe it  to  you  is,  thank  God,  in  the  midst  of  a 
great  spell  of  recovery  that  has  lasted  without  much 
relapse  for  the  last  eighty  years  or  more.  May  God 
prolong  it  to  us  that  we  may  accomplish  much  more 
yet,  for  our  own  good  and  for  His  honour  and 
glory. 

But  the  English  Reformation  was  more  than 
a  revolt  against  the  claims  of  the  papacy.  It 
was  also  a  revolt  against  some  strong  tendencies  of 
the  mediaeval  Western  system  of  doctrine  and 
practice. 

1.  The  doctrine  had  suffered  from  the  intellectual 
movement  called  scholasticism,  which  depended 
overmuch  upon  philosophy  and  Aristotelian  concep- 
tions, and  therefore  came  to  misrepresent  the  Chris- 


14 


AGAINST  SCHOLASTICISM 


tian  Faith.  It  was  a  fine  attempt  in  its  way,  that 
attempt  of  the  scholastics  to  try  to  bring  all  know- 
ledge into  order:  but  it  was  bound  to  fail.  They 
were  saying,  like  the  men  of  Babel,  '  Let  us  build 
a  tower,  the  top  of  which  shall  reach  heaven."  But 
God  destroyed  again  the  half-built  tower :  and  ever 
since  the  West  has  been  divided  into  varying  theo- 
logical tongues.  Those  men  wanted  to  explain  too 
much  :  to  have  no  mysteries.  So  they  laid  down 
the  law  about  everything;  and  when  they  did  not 
know  they  guessed,  and  then  tried  to  impose  their 
guesses  on  the  Church.  Think,  for  example,  of 
their  scholastic  attempts  to  explain  the  mystery  of 
the  Eucharist :  or  to  map  out  exactly  the  world 
beyond  the  grave.  Against  this  scholastic 
mediaevalism  we  rebelled  in  England.  It  was 
difficult  to  guide  the  rebellion,  and  we  know  now 
that  we  did  not  always  discriminate  well;  but  we 
tried  to  come  back  to  the  biblical  and  patristic  forms 
of  doctrine,  rightly  handling  the  word  of  Truth— 
as  St.  Paul  says.  And  we  still  are  being  guided 
bv  the  Holy  Spirit,  we  believe,  according  to  our 
Lord's  promise — He  shall  guide  you  into  all  truth. 

2.  Let  me  give  another  brief  instance  of  the 
nature  of  the  revolt.  It  was  also  a  rebellion  against 
the  legalism  that  had  crept  into  Western  church 
organisation.  The  spirit  of  law  has  always  been 
strong  in  the  Western  Roman  Empire.  There  was 
much  that  was  fine  in  the  Roman  conception  of  law, 
but  when  it  usurped  a  wrong  place  in  the  life  of 
the  church,  much  harm  came  of  it.  For  as  St.  Paul 
says,  "  We  are  not  under  law,  but  under  grace." 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  MERIT 


15 


Think  what  became  in  the  Middle  Ages  of  the 
Doctrine  of  Merit.  A  system,  almost  a  tariff,  was 
built  up,  indicating-  the  value  or  efficacy  of  this 
thing  and  that.  Out  of  this  system  grew  the  mis- 
use of  prayers  and  masses  for  the  dead  :  fhe  formal 
allotting  of  the  merits  of  saints  and  the  traffic  in  in- 
dulgences. Less  conspicuous  than  these,  but  very 
pervasive  in  many  ways  among  the  careless  and  half- 
hearted people  was  the  subtle  perversion  of  religion 
as  a  whole  into  a  systematic  way  devised  for  the  ex- 
torting of  something  from  God.  I  do  not  say  that 
this  was  universal  :  far  from  it.  The  mediaeval 
legalism,  in  its  full  form,  as  it  was  then,  and  also  as 
it  survives  now  (though  in  a  far  less  degree)  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  system,  was  a  parasite,  growing  on 
the  true  tree,  rather  than  anything  individual.  It 
was  an  excrescence  to  be  got  rid  of,  not  a  disease  in- 
fecting the  boughs  and  the  trunk.  The  vital  power 
of  grace  went  on  ;  in  the  free  life  of  grace  holy  souls 
lived  fruitfully  and  died  :  and  most  conspicuously 
they  do  so  still.  But  even  so,  the  rebellion  against 
legalism  was  needed.  Roman  Catholicism  itself,  by 
the  Council  of  Trent,  did  much  to  bring  about  re- 
form, and  cut  away  the  parasitic  growths.  But  we  in 
England  felt  that  more  drastic  reform  was  needed  : 
so  we  have  sought  to  bring  our  branch  to  a 
healthier  state,  where  the  flow  of  divine  grace  to  the 
soul  of  the  believer  is  not  exploited  for  the  benefit  of 
the  ecclesiastical  system  :  and  the  breath  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  more  recognized  as  blowing  where 
He  listeth. 

In  this  revolt  others  took  part  beside  the  English 


16         THE  MEANING  OF  "  PROTESTANT 


Church.  Because  of  their  protest,  all  of  them  are 
sometimes  classed  together  as  "  protestant."  The 
Anglican  Communion  does  not  refuse  the  term 
"protestant,"  if  it  is  properly  understood — that  is 
to  say,  if  it  is  limited  to  its  proper  meaning  as  de- 
scribing those  who  revolted  from  the  papal 
allegiance.  But  the  word  is  often  misunderstood. 
It  is  taken  to  imply  views,  which  may  be  held  by 
Lutherans,  Calvinists,  and  some  bodies  of  protes- 
tants,  but  are  certainly  not  those  of  Anglican 
catholics.  For  we  Anglicans  have  remained 
catholics,  though  we  ceased  to  be  Roman  catholics. 
Many  English  catholics,  therefore,  dislike  the  word 
protestant,  because  it  is  so  much  misunderstood. 

At  best  this  word  does  not  make  a  valuable  classi- 
fication. It  describes  what  is  accidental,  more  than 
what  is  fundamental.  For  fundamentally  we  re- 
main one  with  Roman  Catholics  and  Orthodox  in 
the  Faith,  the  Church,  the  Ministry,  and  the  Sacra- 
ments. We  do  not  share  in  the  peculiarities  of  the 
protestant  sects;  only  in  the  fact  that  we,  too,  like 
them,  have  refused  to  continue  to  accept  the  papal 
claims,  and  some  of  the  corruptions  which  have 
been  intimately  or  persistently  associated  with  them. 

i.  Consider,  then,  this  peculiar  and  unique  form 
of  the  revolt  from  Rome  which  is  shown  in  the 
Anglican  Church.  When  others  were  disowning 
the  apostolic  ministry,  and  establishing  ministers, 
or  pastors,  or  superintendents,  instead  of  the  orders 
of  bishop,  priest  and  deacon,  the  English  Church 
clung  through  thick  and  thin  to  the  apostolic 
ordinance.    This  was  a  difficult  task,  and  brought 


CONSERVATIVE  REFORM 


7 


with  it  much  mockery  and  slander  from  both  sides. 
But  the  event  has  justified  the  action.  The  four  pro- 
vinces and  forty  bishops  who  held  out  in  two  little 
islands  in  the  sixteenth  century  are  now  represented 
by  many  organised  provinces,  besides  many  single 
missionary  dioceses,  and  an  episcopate  of  nearly  300 
members  distributed  throughout  the  world;  and 
still,  thank  God,  the  number  and  the  spread  in- 
creases. 

2.  When  other  bodies  were  overthrowing  the  con- 
ception and  tradition  of  the  Church,  and  trying  to 
frame  a  new  Christian  faith  by  giving  up  the  creeds 
and  making  arbitrary  and  novel  deductions  from 
the  Bible,  the  English  Church  saw  that  there  could 
not  be  fruit  without  branches,  trunk  and  roots.  It, 
therefore,  sought  to  reform  its  doctrine  by  manuring 
the  roots,  by  lopping  off  dead  boughs,  and  by  prun- 
ing the  branches.  In  other  words,  it  made  its 
Reformation  by  the  sifting  out  of  the  best  church 
traditions;  and  by  the  renewed  study  and  guidance 
of  the  Fathers  it  worked  back  to  the  inspired  source 
of  written  revelation  the  Holy  Scriptures  them- 
selves; and  it  refreshed  itself  from  that  fountain 
by  a  doctrine  that  has  flowed  down  the  Christian 
centuries  along  the  clear  channels  of  orthodox 
tradition. 

3.  When  others,  having  overthrown  the  minis- 
try, were  also  destroying  the  sacraments  and  the 
liturgical  worship  of  the  Church,  our  English 
Fathers  preserved  for  us  in  our  Prayer  Book  a 
purified  and  simplified  liturgical  tradition.  The 
amount  that  was  here  sacrificed  was  very  consider- 


;8 


LITURGY  AND  AUTHORITY 


able.  For  the  Latin  mediaeval  rites  were  very  rich 
and  elaborate  :  and  these  had  to  be  much  cut  down 
to  make  them  simple  enough  for  all  the  faithful  to 
understand  and  follow.  But  the  sacrifices  were  for 
the  most  part  justified ;  for  they  have  provided  us 
English  people  with  rites  which  are  the  familiar 
property,  not  merely  of  the  clergy  or  of  the  educated, 
but  of  the  lay  people  of  all  ranks.  They  have  been 
the  solace  and  support  of  our  English  Christianity 
in  many  a  dark  day  and  in  many  an  outlandish 
corner  of  the  world.  It  is  no  small  part  of  the 
recovery  of  these  last  eighty  years  that  these  services 
are  now  restored  to  a  beauty  and  dignity  which 
they  had  often  previously  lacked :  and  they  are 
being  supplemented  and  enriched  in  countless  ways 
by  a  renewed  enthusiasm  for  the  beauty  of  holiness 
in  divine  worship. 

4.  When  others  were  discarding  altogether  the 
principle  of  authority  in  religion,  as  a  revulsion 
from  the  hard  tyranny  of  the  religious  authority  of 
the  middle  ages,  the  English  Church,  at  the  Refor- 
mation, set  itself  to  recover  a  better  ideal  of  spiritual 
authority,  instead  of  discarding  the  principle.  This 
again  was  a  very  difficult  task.  On  the  one  side 
there  were  the  papalists,  saying  that  there  could 
be  no  other  source  of  such  authority  but  the  papacy. 
On  the  other  hand  the  innovators  were  proclaiming 
the  right  and  duty  of  every  man  to  judge  for  himself 
solely  in  matters  of  religion,  and  to  accept  no 
direction  from  the  Church  or  from  its  authorities. 
Both  of  these  parties  derided  the  English  Church  : 
and  they  continue  to  do  so  still.    But  in  spite  of 


FOUR  ANGLICAN  CHARACTERISTICS  19 


this,  we  have  found  a  way  to  maintain  a  principle 
of  religious  authority  without  destroying  individual 
judgment  and  responsibility.  We  see  a  real 
authority  inherent  in  the  Body  of  the  Church 
Universal,  expressed  in  different  degrees  by  its 
representatives,  pre-eminently  by  the  Great  Fathers 
and  Doctors,  and  finally  by  the  General  Councils. 
This  authority  is  exterior  to  the  individual,  and  is 
therefore  able  to  be  a  real  guide  to  his  heart  and 
mind  and  conscience  :  and  yet  it  is  not  alien  from 
him,  for  it  is  the  whole  society  to  which  he  belongs. 
It  is  a  sort  of  greater  self,  than  his  own  self,  in  which 
he  lives  as  a  member,  in  which  he  bears  his  share, 
and  from  which,  as  the  Body  of  Christ,  he  draws 
his  supply  of  grace  and  life.  Such  a  strong,  but 
gentle,  principle  of  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical 
authority  was  well  worth  fighting  for  against  the 
more  attractive  but  less  real  plans  of  papal  auto- 
cracy or  individualistic  anarchy.  It  has  been  hard 
to  maintain  this  principle,  and  we  have  not  always 
succeeded  in  doing  so  :  but  it  is  our  principle. 

I  have  tried  to  bring  out  specially  clearly  these 
four  characteristics  of  the  English  separation  from 
the  rest  of  the  Western  Church  and  from  the  sects 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  First  the  Apostolic 
Ministry  is  maintained;  secondly,  the  Creeds 
remain  the  standard  of  Faith ;  thirdly,  the  liturgical 
services  are  preserved  but  in  a  revised  form ;  and 
fourthly,  the  principle  of  church  authority  is 
recovered  in  a  non-papal  shape.  These  are  charac- 
teristics that  have  affected  the  life  of  the  English 
Church   ever  since.     They  brought  her   into  a 


so  FUNDAMENTALLY  EPISCOPAL 


strange  isolation  in  the  early  days :  and  our 
Fathers  since  the  Reformation  shewed  no  little 
courage  and  faith  in  maintaining  this  course,  alone. 
It  is  therefore  a  happy  thing  for  us  to-day  (as  it 
has  been  sometimes  even  in  earlier  days)  to  turn 
eastwards,  and  to  be  sure  that  you  will  sympathize 
with  the  efforts  of  the  English  Church  to  preserve 
such  traditions  and  principles  faithfully.  There 
have  been  from  time  to  time  powerful  groups  in 
England,  who  have  wished  to  make  us  discard 
them  :  and  even  sometimes  there  have  been  people 
of  our  own  who  have  been  ready  to  do  so.  But, 
thank  God,  they  are  preserved. 

Sympathy  upon  such  fundamental  points  will 
also  make  it  easier  for  me  to  explain,  and  for  you 
to  understand,  some  of  those  differences  of  custom 
between  us  and  you,  which  have  come  about  through 
the  difference  in  history  and  temperament  of  which 
I  have  already  spoken.  To  some  of  these  points  of 
difference,  we,  with  our  Western  tradition  and 
temperament,  naturally  hold  very  fast.  But  there 
are  many  points  of  difference  where  that  is  much 
less  the  case  :  and  some  points  in  which  the  process 
of  recovery  after  our  "  operation  "  is  bringing  us 
steadily  nearer  to  your  own  position.  Each  of 
these  three  classes  will  be  illustrated  in  the  course 
of  the  description  which  I  can  now  at  last  begin, 
of  Life  in  the  English  Church. 

The  English  Church  is  fundamentally  episcopal. 
Each  diocese  is  governed  by  its  bishop.  In  the 
settled  places  such  as  England,  Scotland,  Ireland, 
Canada,  Australia,  South  Africa  and  so  on,  there 


THE  ESTABLISHMENT 


21 


is  also  the  provincial  organization  under  arch- 
bishops and  metropolitans.  In  missionary  fields 
this  has  not  yet  been  established.  Corresponding 
to  the  episcopal  government  there  are  councils  or 
synods — diocesan  and  provincial. 

Our  Anglican  bishops  also,  from  all  parts  of  the 
world,  meet  in  conference  at  intervals.  Their 
conferences  are  not  councils.  The  bishops  only 
meet  thus  to  discuss  and  advise ;  they  do  not  legis- 
late, or  pass  canons  as  the  synods  do.  They  have  no 
such  authority.  Of  course  any  diocese  or  province 
has  an  authority  of  its  own.  It  is  everywhere  a  real 
unit  with  some  powers  of  self-government.  But  the 
Anglican  communion  is  not  a  unit :  it  does  not  act 
alone.  It  wishes  only  to  act  in  union  with  the 
whole  ecumenical  church.  Beyond  its  own  limits, 
it  looks  to  a  General  Council  as  the  final  authority 
of  the  Church.  Therefore  its  own  joint  meetings, 
though  important,  are  purely  consultative. 

The  powers  of  self-government  of  the  Church  in 
England  itself  are  much  restricted,  owing  to  its 
connexion  with  the  State;  in  Scotland,  Ireland  and 
the  Colonies  and  so  forth  the  Church  is  much  freer. 
This  English  connexion  is  a  legacy  of  mediaeval 
days;  many  therefore  are  unwilling  to  break  with  it, 
and  prefer  to  put  up  with  the  restrictions  which  it 
brings.  In  those  days  the  connexion  also  brought 
some  privileges  with  it  :  but  very  few  of  them 
survive  now.  Consequently  the  question  of  the 
right  relation  of  our  ancient  Church,  with  the  State, 
in  its  modern  and  much  altered  condition,  is  one 
that  is  now  being  much  discussed  among  us. 


22      THE  CHURCH  AND  TEMPORAL  THINGS 


The  Church  receives  no  revenues  from  the  State  : 
it  has  its  own  possessions  which  have  come  to  it 
during  the  last  thirteen  hundred  years.  A  con- 
siderable part  of  the  income  comes  from  tithes  : 
there  are  also  lands  :  and  each  parish  as  a  rule  has 
a  house  and  some  land  belonging  to  it  for  the 
priest.  Most  of  this  is  very  old  endowment;  but 
some  of  it  is  of  recent  origin.  These  revenues  have 
been  diminished,  and  a  good  deal  was  taken  away 
in  the  sixteenth  century :  but  what  remains  is 
considerable,  and  to  a  certain  extent  it  is  redistri- 
buted to  suit  present  needs  of  the  Church.  But 
more  than  half  of  its  income  every  year  comes  not 
from  old  benefactions,  but  from  present  subscrip- 
tions and  gifts. 

It  is  now  proposed  to  disestablish  the  four  Welsh 
dioceses,  and  to  take  away  the  greater  part  of  their 
income.  The  sects  are  strong  in  Wales  :  and  it  is 
quite  possible  that  in  the  present  parliament  this 
plan  will  be  accomplished.  Then  the  Church  will 
be  obliged  to  depend  still  more  upon  the  free-will 
offerings  of  the  people.  Meanwhile  a  strong  resis- 
tance is  being  made  by  many,  who  wish  to  maintain 
the  connexion  of  the  Church  with  the  State  and  by 
others  who  think  the  present  proposals  unjust.3 

I  have  thought  it  well  to  say  a  little  about  these 
financial  and  political  questions  because  they  are 
now  very  prominent.  But  the  spiritual  position  of 
the  Church  stands  independent  of  these  temporal 
things :  and  it  is  that  which  interests  us  most.  I 
shall  therefore  spend  the  greater  part  of  the  time  on 
that  in  the  succeeding  lectures.    In  order,  however, 


THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  ORGANIZATION  23 


to  clear  the  ground,  we  will  end  to-day  with  a  brief 
survey  of  the  general  ecclesiastical  organization  of 
the  Church,  as  it  is  in  England  at  the  present  time. 

There  are  two  ecclesiastical  provinces  in  England, 
and  their  metropolitans,  as  you  know,  are  the 
Archbishops  of  Canterbury  and  York.  The  num- 
ber of  dioceses  has  in  recent  years  been  considerably 
increased,  in  order  to  meet  the  great  increase  of 
population.  Three  new  ones  were  formed  a  few- 
weeks  ago  and  this  brings  up  the  number  to  forty, 
twenty-nine  in  the  province  of  Canterbury,  and 
eleven  in  the  province  of  York.  This  number  is 
not  sufficient.  A  bishop  cannot  be  a  real  Father 
in  God  to  three  or  four  millions  of  souls,  such  as 
there  are  in  some  of  the  present  dioceses.  Other 
sub-divisions  will  probably  soon  be  made  :  but  the 
process  has  to  go  on  rather  slowly,  since  a  large 
sum  must  first  be  raised  in  order  to  provide  the 
income  for  the  new  bishop. 

Meanwhile  much  of  the  diocesan  organization  is 
not  so  efficient  as  it  ought  to  be ;  and  the  bishop 
is  greatly  overworked.  In  many  dioceses  the 
diocesan  bishop  has  other  bishops,  called  "suffra- 
gans," to  help  him.  For  London  there  are  three 
diocesan  bishops  who  are  assisted  by  six  or  more 
suffragans.  But  this  is  not  satisfactory  as  a  perma- 
nent arrangement.  The  bishop  must  know  his 
flock.  He  should  know  his  own  clergy  intimately  : 
he  should  come  into  contact  with  all  his  people 
singly  at  least  once  in  their  lives,  when  they  come 
before  him  to  be  confirmed.  He  should  be  the 
fountain  of  all  good  works  :  every  operation  in  the 


24  FUNCTIONS  OF  THE  DIGNITARIES 


Church  should  profit  by  his  prayers  and  his  bless- 
ing. He  should  rule  also  as  a  personal  ruler, 
representing  the  authority  of  Christ  in  doctrine  and 
in  discipline.  At  his  consecration  he  has  promised 
to  drive  away  error,  to  punish  wrong-doing,  and  to 
set  forward  quietness,  love  and  peace  among  all 
men.  These  are  some  of  the  ideals  of  the  bishops  : 
and  our  Fathers  in  God  labour  faithfully  and 
heroically  at  their  task  in  spite  of  the  overwhelm- 
ing size  of  their  charge. 

Besides  the  suffragan  bishops,  who  help  them  in 
the  performance  of  the  episcopal  actions,  there  are 
many  others  subordinated  to  them.  At  the  prin- 
cipal church  of  the  diocese,  called  the  "  cathedral," 
because  the  bishop  has  his  throne  therein,  there  is 
grouped  a  body  of  councillors  in  the  Dean,  Arch- 
deacons and  Canons,  who  form  the  staff  of  the 
Church,  in  one  or  other  way.  This  is  the  Mother 
Church  of  the  diocese :  it  is  meant  to  be  a  model 
for  the  rest,  and  a  centre  of  diocesan  life. 

The  archdeacons  are  in  priest's  orders  and  have 
a  great  position.  Each  of  them  is  responsible  for 
the  oversight,  under  the  bishop,  of  one  section  of 
the  diocese;  and  under  them  there  is  further 
organization,  which  unites  the  parishes  into  groups 
of  a  dozen  or  more,  under  the  presidency  of  a  rural 
dean.  These  are  personal  officials  :  and  there  are 
also  bodies  subsidiary  to  the  bishop.  He  calls  his 
clergy  together  in  synod  or  conference,  and  sum- 
mons lay  representatives  from  the  parishes  as  well  : 
and  the  archdeacon  does  the  same  at  intervals  in  his 
own  district.    Also  it  is  through  such  an  organiza- 


DIOCESE  &  PARISH 


-5 


tion  that  the  bishop  officially  holds  a  visitation  of 
his  diocese,  normally  every  third  year;  thus  he  can 
assure  himself  either  by  enquiries,  to  which  the 
clergy  and  lay  officials  return  answers,  or  else  by 
personal  investigation,  that  all  is  in  order,  and  that 
there  is  no  neglect  or  scandal  in  the  diocese. 

As  church  life  has  grown  in  reality,  and  as 
dioceses  have  multiplied  and  become  more  work- 
able, so  all  this  has  led  to  greater  vigour — evan- 
gelistic, pastoral,  and  devotional. 

As  the  dioceses  have  multiplied  so  have  the 
parishes,  ever  since  the  Anglo-Saxon  days  (ninth 
or  tenth  century)  when  they  first  began  to  be 
formed.  At  present  the  biggest  dioceses  contain 
about  600  parishes  :  an  ordinary  small  one  contains 
two  or  three  hundred.  In  population  a  parish  may 
vary  from  one  hundred  to  thirty  (or  even  occasion- 
ally forty)  thousand.  We  always  count  the  whole 
population  :  because  though  some  may  belong  to 
Roman  Catholicism,  or  other  forms  of  Dissent, 
we  reckon  ourselves  really  responsible  for  them, 
because  we  are  the  Church  of  the  country. 

This  lecture  is  in  many  ways  introductory  to  the 
rest.  I  have  taken  up  most  of  it  with  some  general 
observations  which  I  hope  may  make  it  easier  to 
understand  all  the  rest.  And  at  the  end  I  have 
given  some  statistical  account  of  the  position  in 
England  itself,  as  regards  dioceses  and  parishes. 
Next  time  I  hope  to  begin  with  a  description  of 
parochial  life,  and  to  sketch  the  organization, 
worship  and  religion  as  it  meets  an  ordinary 
parishioner  in  his  parish. 


LECTURE  II. 


Parochial  Life. 

To-day  our  subject  is  the  life  in  an  English  parish. 
We  have  had  the  parochial  system  existing  for  over 
a  thousand  years  now  in  England  :  and  in  that  way 
a  complete  provision  has  been  made  for  every  one 
to  be  in  touch  with  the  life  of  grace  and  the  sacra- 
ments. This  organization  has  of  course  developed 
further  in  course  of  years  :  but  the  principle  has 
been  the  same  all  the  time. 

For  instance,  Mirfield,  the  place  in  which  our 
Community  has  its  Mother  House,  was,  one 
thousand  years  ago,  in  the  large  parish  of  Dews- 
bury.  That  was  a  very  ancient  Christian  centre, 
for  St.  Paulinus  is  said  to  have  preached  there  in 
627  :  there  are  still  some  stone  crosses  in  the  Church 
belonging  to  those  very  early  days ;  and  the  church 
is  still  dedicated  to  St.  Paulinus.  But  the  parish 
was  too  large  :  consequently  the  outlying  portions 
were  cut  off  and  made  into  separate  parishes  in  the 
twelfth  century.  About  the  year  1280,  our  part 
(Mirfield)  became  also  a  separate  parish  with  its 
own  church  and  parish  priest.  Finally,  when  the 
population  grew,  in  the  last  century,  our  bit  was 
further  sub-divided,  and  Mirfield  now  comprises 
five  parishes. 

Parishes  have  been  thus  sub-divided  in  many 
parts  of  our  country  wherever  the  population  has 
26 


THE  CHURCH'S  RESPONSIBILITY  27 


greatly  multiplied.  But  in  the  country  districts 
there  are  countless  villages  where  the  parish  remains 
the  same  area  and  the  same  unit  as  it  was  a  thousand 
years  ago. 

The  purpose  that  lies  behind  all  this  machinery 
is  evident.  The  object  is  to  secure  for  every  soul, 
his  own  pastor,  his  opportunity  of  teaching, 
sacraments  and  sacramental  rites — in  fact,  the 
means  of  grace  that  he  needs  to  live  a  Christian 
life. 

The  English  Church  at  home  makes  this  provi- 
sion for  every  one  :  and  it  covers  the  whole  ground, 
because  all  the  inhabitants  are,  or  ought  to  be,  its 
faithful  children.  That  is  one  difference  between  the 
Church  and  the  Dissenters.  They  collect  any  one 
whom  they  can  get  to  adhere  to  them  :  they  form  a 
number  of  congregations,  that  is  all.  They  com- 
pete like  business  houses  :  they  open  new  institu- 
tions where  they  think  they  will  succeed,  and  close 
them  again  where  they  fail.  But  the  Church,  like 
the  Government,  has  its  claim  upon  all  and  its 
responsibility  for  all.  Even  for  those  who  pay  it 
no  respect,  and  acknowledge  no  allegiance  to  it, 
the  Church  holds  itself  responsible.  They  are  its 
children,  though  they  may  be  indifferent,  alienated, 
or  hostile. 

That  is  the  general  idea.  We  will  now  carry  our 
minds  into  a  single  parish — an  imaginary  but 
typical  one — and  try  to  see  its  life  and  its  ideals. 
We  will  suppose  that,  at  the  moment,  the  benefice, 
or  parish  priest's  office,  is  vacant.  The  late  priest 
has  died;  or  he  has  been  called  to  work  elsewhere. 


28  THE  CEREMONY  OF  INSTITUTION 


Meanwhile  the  lay  officials  called  "churchwardens" 
are  responsible :  and  they  with  the  help  of  the 
bishop  and  the  clergy  of  the  diocese  or  neighbour- 
hood arrange  for  the  services  and  other  things 
necessary  during  the  vacancy. 

Meanwhile  a  new  priest  is  being  found  for  the 
place.  I  will  not  now  describe  the  system  of 
patronage:  that  will  come  later  on.  But  it  is 
enough  to  say  that  some  one  will  find  him  :  and 
then  will  present  him  to  the  bishop  for  institution 
to  the  care  of  souls  in  that  parish.  After  due 
formalities,  and  provided  that  all  is  satisfactory, 
the  bishop  will  institute  him,  that  is  to  say,  he  will 
commit  to  him  in  the  name  of  God  the  care  of  the 
souls  of  all  in  that  place.  This  is  a  solemn  cere- 
mony. It  may  take  place  solemnly  before  the 
people  in  the  parish  church,  if  the  bishop  can  visit 
the  parish  for  the  purpose.  But  often  he  cannot : 
and  the  new  priest  goes  to  the  bishop  and  is  insti- 
tuted by  him  in  his  chapel.  In  either  case  the  act 
is  a  solemn  and  a  significant  one.  He  kneels  before 
the  bishop,  holding  in  his  hand  the  deed  of  presen- 
tation to  the  benefice :  and  the  bishop,  as  chief 
pastor  of  the  diocese  and  source  of  all  ecclesiastical 
authority,  confers  on  him  the  care  of  the  flock. 
The  position  is  exactly  described  by  the  old  Latin 
formula,  which  is  still  in  use — Accipe  curam  meam 
et  tuam — "  Receive  this  charge,  which  is  mine  and 
now  also  becomes  thine." 

Another  ceremony  follows,  which  corresponds, 
on  the  ecclesiastical  and  legal  side,  with  the  spiritual 
act  of  institution.    This  is  called  "  induction  "  :  it 


INDUCTION 


29 


puts  the  new  priest  into  possession  of  the  rights 
and  property  of  his  office.  This  is  done  by  the 
archdeacon,  or  his  deputy,  in  the  parish  church. 
For  the  archdeacons,  with  us,  are  officials  who  have 
an  administrative  and  legal  jurisdiction,  under  the 
bishop,  over  that  part  of  the  diocese  which  is 
allotted  to  them.  The  new  priest  is  thus  put  in 
authority  over  the  church,  he  is  installed  in  the 
seat  of  the  parish  priest,  and  he  rings  the  great 
church  bell  as  a  sign  of  his  taking  possession.  This 
is  picturesque  and  it  has  its  importance  :  but  it  is, 
of  course,  much  less  significant  than  the  solemn 
institution. 

Let  us  now  consider  what  is  the  ideal  of  the 
newly-come  priest,  as  he  takes  charge  of  his  parish. 
Very  familiar  words  define  it  for  him.  Always  in 
the  Liturgy  he  prays  for  bishops  and  all  those  who 
have  cure  of  souls — "  that  they  may,  both  by  their 
life  and  doctrine,  set  forth  God's  true  and  lively 
word,  and  rightly  and  duly  administer  his  holy 
sacraments."  If  his  thoughts  fly  back  to  his  own 
ordination  to  the  priesthood,  he  will  recall  the  ideal 
then  set  before  him.  It  corresponds  very  closely 
with  the  opening  of  your  Russian  treatise,  On  the 
Duty  of  Parish  Priests.  If  he  thinks  of  his  people, 
for  whose  souls  he  now  has  to  care,  he  will  regard 
himself  both  as  their  ruler  and  as  their  servant. 
He  is  their  servant,  not  because  they  appoint  him, 
or  employ  him,  or  control  him;  for  they  do  not. 
He  is  sent  to  them  by  the  bishop  in  the  name  of 
God.  But  just  as  the  Son  of  God  whom  the  Father 
sent  into  the  world  for  our  salvation,  said  to  His 


IDEALS  OF  THE  TRUE  PRIEST 


Apostles,  "  I  am  among  you  as  one  that  serveth  "  : 
so  the  new  priest,  as  minister  of  Jesus  Christ,  will 
try  to  follow  the  Master's  example,  and  be  an 
unwearying,  faithful  and  humble  servant  of  his 
people. 

But  he  is  their  ruler  too  :  his  actual  title  as  parish 
priest  is  Rector,  or  ruler.  He  has  the  authority 
of  the  priesthood ;  he  has  the  power  to  absolve,  and 
bless,  and  consecrate.  He  has  to  be  an  officer  too 
of  the  discipline  of  the  church,  and  a  guardian  as 
well  as  an  administrator  of  the  holy  sacraments. 
It  is  this  authority  that  is  given  to  him,  and  not 
anything  that  he  has  of  his  own,  which  makes  him 
ruler.  His  power  is  from  above.  The  treasure  is 
in  a  poor  earthen  vessel,  as  St.  Paul  says;  but  it  is 
the  living  and  life-giving  grace  of  the  Eternal  and 
Almighty  God. 

Let  us  look  at  the  ideals  a  little  more  in  detail. 

i.  The  parish  priest  must  know  his  people,  as 
the  shepherd  knows  his  flock.  Otherwise  he  cannot 
be  a  faithful  pastor.  We  have  in  England  a  great 
tradition  in  this  respect.  The  priest's  duty  is  not 
only  to  be  in  church,  for  the  people  to  come  to  him. 
It  is  his  duty  and  his  privilege  to  go  to  them.  He 
visits  them  in  their  houses;  and,  almost  without 
exception,  every  door  is  open  to  him.  Even  the 
careless  people,  and  those  who  are  Dissenters,  will 
welcome  him.  People,  who  will  not  come  to  church 
themselves,  will  feel  that  they  are  neglected  if  the 
clergy  do  not  come  to  visit  them  :  and  will  com- 
plain. But  in  general  our  English  proverb  is  true  : 
A  house-going  priest  makes  a  church-going  people. 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  VISITING 


3: 


There  are,  no  doubt,  places  in  the  great  towns, 
where  population  has  increased  with  lightning 
speed,  and  where  the  people  have  consequently 
been  left  unshepherded  :  in  these  places,  it  may  be, 
the  parish  priest  is  not  expected  at  every  house,  or 
he  may  even  be  not  welcome.  But  such  places  are 
exceptional  :  and,  in  these  last  fifty  years  and  more, 
a  great  deal  has  been  done,  and  is  being  done,  to 
recover  the  lost  ground.  As  our  priests  follow  St. 
Paul's  example  of  teaching,  both  publicly  and 
from  house  to  house  (Acts  xx.  20),  they  are  enabled 
by  God's  mercy  to  win  back  many  who  had  fallen 
into  carelessness  and  sin,  and  in  some  parishes 
even  to  turn  a  desert  into  the  garden  of  the  Lord. 

So  the  new  rector  sets  to  work  to  know  his  people. 
He  probably  receives  help  from  the  previous  rector. 
There  is  a  list  of  the  communicants  which  is  handed 
on  to  him  :  so  perhaps  he  begins  by  visiting  the 
inner  circle  of  faithful  souls.  Probably  also  there 
is  a  list  of  all  the  parishioners  in  some  degree  of 
completeness.  If  the  parish  is  small  there  is  little 
difficulty  about  this.  But  if  the  parish  is  large,  it 
has  probably  been  harder  for  the  previous  rector  to 
keep  his  roll  of  streets  and  houses.  Perhaps  also 
the  parish  may  lie  in  a  poor  quarter  of  a  town  where 
people  change  their  houses  continually  after  very 
short  stays.  In  that  case  it  will  be  impossible  to 
have  a  full  and  accurate  catalogue.  But  there  is 
probably  some  list  existing,  that  is  handed  on  to 
the  newcomer. 

Besides  if  it  is  a  large  parish  there  have  been 
assistant  clergy — perhaps  two,  three,  four,  or  even 


32 


FEED  MY  SHEEP  " 


more,  besides  the  parish  priest.  Some  of  them 
perhaps  still  remain  in  the  parish;  and  they  help 
to  bridge  the  gap.  Also  they  too  should  have  lists 
of  the  people,  each  one  his  own,  relating  to  that 
part  of  the  parish  which  has  been  allotted  to  each  as 
his  special  charge.  So  in  some  way  the  people  are 
generally  known. 

There  is  probably  also  a  list  of  the  sick  who  are 
being  specially  visited  :  and  in  a  large  parish  this 
list  is  revised  week  by  week.  Some  will  be  visited 
every  week,  some  oftener,  every  day  or  many  times 
in  a  day  if  they  are  dying.  The  people  are  told  to 
send  for  the  priest  at  any  time  of  day  or  night,  in 
order  that  he  may  minister  to  the  dying  or  baptize 
an  infant  in  case  of  sickness.  In  an  increasing 
number  of  parishes  the  Holy  Sacrament  can  be 
brought  from  somewhere,  where  it  is  reserved,  for 
the  viaticum  (e<p6Siov)  of  the  dying.  It  is  only 
recently  that  any  of  our  bishops  in  England  have 
sanctioned  the  restoration  of  this  old  English 
custom  :  but  the  provision  is  now  being  much  more 
generally  made ;  already  it  is  widespread  in  Scot- 
land, America  and  some  other  parts  of  the  Anglican 
Communion. 

2.  Secondly,  the  new  priest  has  received  the  charge 
which  our  Lord  gave  to  St.  Peter,  when  He  said  : 
"  Feed  my  sheep."  And  the  food  that  he  has 
wherewith  to  feed  them  is  the  sincere  milk  of  the 
word  whereby  they  are  to  grow,  as  St.  Peter  says 
(i  Peter  ii.  2)  and  the  food  of  the  sacraments  and 
especially  the  Holy  Body  and  Blood  of  Christ  our 
Saviour. 


DAILY  SERVICES 


33 


The  main  provision  of  services  is  the  daily 
Morning  and  Evening  Prayer,  and  the  Liturgy  at 
the  least  on  Sundays  and  festivals.  But  the  new 
priest  probably  sees  from  the  records  that  have  been 
kept  of  the  services,  or  from  the  parish  magazine, 
that  a  good  deal  more  has  been  provided  than  this 
minimum.  In  a  small  country  parish  there  are  few, 
if  any,  as  a  rule  who  will  come  and  join  with  the 
priest  in  saying  his  Morning  and  Evening  Office. 
Perhaps  there  will  be  some  of  his  own  household, 
or  some  leisured  people  from  the  estate,  or  some 
old  people,  who  will  gather  when  the  bell  rings 
morning  and  evening.  But  perhaps  as  a  rule  he 
will  say  his  office  alone,  joining  with  the  angels 
and  the  prayers  of  the  saints  and  faithful  departed. 

In  a  town  parish,  where  there  is  a  vigorous 
church  life,  there  will  not  be  this  difficulty.  There 
may  be  two  or  three  clergy;  and  then  they  will 
assemble  and  say  their  office  together.  Often 
there  will  be  others,  who  are  given  up  to  the  work 
of  the  parish — sisters,  or  deaconesses,  or  church- 
workers — who  will  be  there  also  :  and  probably 
some  will  be  found  too,  like  Simeon  and  Anna, 
who  love  to  haunt  the  courts  of  God's  Temple,  and 
meet  their  Lord  in  prayer  and  worship  and  thanks- 
giving with  the  Benedictus  and  the  Magnificat  and 
the  Nunc  dimittis. 

In  such  parishes  the  Liturgy  is  probably  not 
confined  to  Sundays  and  Holy  Days  :  but  is  said 
on  ordinary  days  too.  In  a  rapidly  growing 
number  of  churches  there  is  the  daily  Eucharist  : 
in  some,   where  there  is  a  staff  of  clergy  and 


34  MULTIPLICATION  OF  EUCHARISTS 


many  desire  opportunities  of  Communion  and 
Eucharistic  worship,  there  will  be  two  or  three  cele- 
brations in  a  day  habitually.  The  whole  tendency 
of  the  present  time  is  to  multiply  these  opportuni- 
ties :  and  the  people  are  increasingly  eager  to  take 
advantage  of  them. 

The  service  on  a  week  day  does  not  last  much 
more  than  half  an  hour.  For  you  will  remember 
that  in  the  West  the  development  from  very  early 
times  has  been  to  multiply  opportunities  so  as  to 
give  every  one,  as  far  as  may  be, — and  even  busy 
people— a  chance  of  being  present  every  day. 
Therefore  our  Western  Liturgy  in  order  to  be  fre- 
quent has  become  shorter  in  its  contents  and  simpler 
so  far  as  ceremonies  are  concerned.  The  two  main 
features  of  difference  in  this  respect  are  these  :  (i) 
that  the  Western  Liturgy  varies  far  more  from  day 
to  day  than  the  Eastern,  and  (2)  that  it  has  never 
developed  an  independent  part  for  the  deacon  as 
has  been  done  in  the  East. 

On  Sundays,  of  course,  in  our  parish  there  is 
much  more  by  way  of  services;  and  they  are  sung 
and  not  said  (even  in  village  churches),  so  that 
they  take  more  time.  Morning  Prayer  is  followed 
by  the  Litany  which  in  turn  precedes  the  Liturgy, 
and  there  is  a  sermon  preached  then.  That  is  the 
natural  order.  But  the  multiplication  of  Eucharists 
has  in  one  way  or  another  altered  it  during  the  last 
century ;  and  now  our  parishes  are  not  at  all  uniform 
in  order  or  in  hours.  The  plans  are  determined  by 
local  conditions  and  convenience.  In  old-fashioned 
parishes  the  largest  congregation  will  be  at  Morn- 


RECOVERY  OF  CEREMONIAL  35 


ing  or  Evening  Prayer;  and  at  the  Liturgy  there 
will  be  few,  if  any,  besides  those  who  are  going  to 
communicate.  But  in  others  the  contrary  is  the 
case.  And  many  parishes  are  in  a  state  of  transi- 
tion from  the  one  point  to  the  other. 

A  similar  difference  and  a  similar  state  of  transi- 
tion exists  as  regards  the  vestments.  In  the  greater 
number  of  churches  the  vestments  of  the  clergy  are 
of  the  simplest  kind — only  a  cassock,  a  surplice,  a 
hood,  and  a  stole.  This  plan  has  tradition  in  its 
favour;  for  this  simplicity  was  adopted  generally 
in  the  sixteenth  century  in  the  revulsion  against 
mediaeval  custom.  But  while  the  Church  tolerated 
so  little,  it  prescribed  more  :  and  in  the  revival  of 
church  life  in  the  nineteenth  century  the  fuller  use 
of  vestments  was  recovered  ;  the  chasuble,  dalmatic, 
cope,  etc.,  are  being  increasingly  adopted. 

The  same  is  true  of  the  ceremonies.  In  the 
Western  Church,  as  the  ceremonies  were  gradually 
cut  down,  there  developed  two  ways  of  performing 
the  Liturgy.4  In  the  solemn  one  the  celebrant  was 
assisted  by  a  sub-deacon  and  a  deacon,  who  sang 
the  Epistle  and  Gospel  respectively,  and  also  by  a 
number  of  lesser  ministers — that  is  to  say,  the 
candle-bearers,  thurifers,  cross-bearer  and  the  rest, 
who  joined  and  bore  their  part  in  the  performance 
of  the  Liturgy.  The  choir  sang  and  all  was 
solemn,  stately  and  lengthy,  though  less  so  than 
in  Eastern  Services.  In  the  less  solemn  form, 
there  was  probably  no  choir,  no  deacon  or  sub- 
deacon,  and  it  fell  to  the  priest  to  say  the  parts  of 
the  service  belonging  to  them  :  and  he  perhaps  had 


36 


ADDITIONAL  SERVICES  " 


only  a  boy  with  him,  to  assist  him  on  the  one  or 
two  places  where  some  help  was  indispensable. 

This  simpler  form — low  mass  as  distinct  from 
high  mass — is  the  one  that  was  described  and  laid 
down  as  a  minimum  in  our  Prayer  Book  when  it 
was  re-formed  in  English  in  the  sixteenth  century  : 
and  this  with  the  simpler  vestments  has  in  the  main 
prevailed.  Tradition,  however,  preserved  in  the 
great  churches  some  features  of  the  more  solemn 
performance ;  and  they  went  on  in  varying  degrees 
down  to  the  nineteenth  century,  when  the  revival 
came  and  the  more  solemn  performance  was  again 
recovered.  It  is  only  slowly  winning  its  way,  partly 
for  want  of  many  material  things  and  of  sufficient 
clergy  :  and  also  because  our  people  are  by  nature 
very  conservative  and  traditionally  suspicious  of 
ceremonial  in  religious  worship. 

So  far  then  as  the  prescribed  services  are  con- 
cerned the  picture  that  must  be  imagined  is  a  varied 
one.  It  will  be  still  more  varied  as  regards  what 
are  called  "  additional  services  " — that  is  to  say,  ser- 
vices which  are  not  imposed,  but  are  sanctioned  by 
episcopal  authority.  These  are  a  great  feature  of 
the  present  movement  of  religious  revival.  They 
vary  according  to  the  needs  of  the  place.  Some 
have  come  into  more  or  less  general  use — such  as 
Jie  "  Three  Hours'  Service,"  which  is  held  on 
Good  Friday  from  twelve  to  three,  as  a  watching 
with  our  Blessed  Lord  through  the  hours  of  dark- 
ness when  he  hung  upon  the  Cross.  Very  general 
also  are  some  services  of  preparation  for  communi- 
cants before  they  receive  the  Blessed  Sacrament. 


PREACHING  AND  TEACHING 


37 


Also  where  there  are  many  poor  and  uninstructed 
people  there  will  be  simple  services  of  prayer  and 
teaching  and  singing  adapted  to  their  needs. 
Again  there  may  be  special  gatherings  for  men  : 
special  services  for  children  are  universal :  and  the 
numberless  guilds  and  societies  (of  which  I  shall 
say  a  word  shortly)  have  probably  each  of  them  a 
service  of  its  own  from  time  to  time.  Also  there 
are  generally  some  services  of  intercession — perhaps 
for  the  parish  and  its  needs,  perhaps  for  Foreign 
Missions :  these  very  likely  take  the  form  of  a 
Litany.  In  some  parishes  there  may  be  also 
services  in  commemoration  of  the  faithful  departed 
or  in  commemoration  of  the  Holy  Sacrament. 

So  the  new  priest  will  find  a  great  deal  that  he 
has  to  carry  on  in  church  besides  the  prescribed 
services,  and  besides  all  the  "occasional  offices" 
corresponding  roughly  to  your  Trebnik.  All  this 
involves  too  a  great  deal  of  preaching.  Our  people 
are  very  fond  of  sermons,  and  insist  on  having  a 
great  many  besides  the  one  which  is  prescribed  to 
be  given  in  the  course  of  the  Liturgy.  In  every 
parish  there  will  be  two  or  three  every  Sunday,  and 
probably  another  on  some  week-day  as  well.  In 
large  parishes  and  where  there  are  many  clergy 
there  will  be  more. 

3.  This  leads  us  on  to  a  third  ideal  of  our  parish 
priest.  He  must  teach  his  people.  The  young  are 
to  be  taught  in  school  and  in  church.  All  our 
English  poorer  children  have  to  attend  the  elemen- 
tary schools,  and  if  the  priest  is  lucky  he  will  find  in 
his  parish  a  public  school,  which  is  managed  by 


38 


THE  CHURCH  AND  EDUCATION 


the  Church  on  behalf  of  the  State  under  State 
supervision  and  with  grants  of  public  money  for  its 
support.  The  Church  in  olden  days  had  estab- 
lished such  schools  throughout  the  land.  But  it 
was  not  able  to  cover  the  whole  ground,  even 
supplemented  as  it  was  by  religious  schools  founded 
by  the  sects.  Consequently  in  1870  the  State 
began  to  supply  education,  where  it  was  needed  and 
was  not  already  provided.  But  the  teaching  of 
religion  that  is  given  in  state  schools,  and  the 
spirit  that  often  prevails  in  them,  is  not  satisfactory 
to  churchmen,  even  though  in  many  places  the 
teachers  in  state  schools  are  zealous  church  people. 
So  the  Church  has  tried  to  keep  its  own  schools 
wherever  it  can  do  so,  and  so  secure  by  that  means 
full  teaching  of  the  faith  to  as  many  of  the  children 
as  is  possible. 

The  priest  is  happy  then  if  he  finds  such  a  school 
forming  part  of  the  equipment  of  his  parish.  But 
in  any  case  there  is  also  Sunday  available  as  a  day 
of  instruction  for  the  children ;  and  Sunday  schools 
for  purely  religious  teaching  are  practically  univer- 
sal. There  is  also  a  more  formal  instruction  pre- 
scribed to  the  parish  priest,  viz.,  the  catechizing  in 
church  on  Sunday  afternoon.  And  in  many 
parishes  this  is  developed  into  an  elaborate  system 
which  (like  the  Sunday  school)  employs  not  only 
the  clergy  but  a  number  of  voluntary  helpers,  both 
men  and  women.  Immense  advances  are  being 
made  year  by  year  in  the  efficiency  of  Sunday 
schools  and  catechisms,  and  increasing  care  is 
taken  to  make  teachers  competent  and  methods 
scientific. 


PREPARING  FOR  CONFIRMATION 


39 


Again,  the  youths,  the  young  women,  and  the 
adults  too,  have  to  be  taught :  and  there  are 
probably  classes  for  them  on  Sunday  or  on  the 
week  nights.  Especially  the  Sunday  school 
teachers  have  to  be  trained  and  taught  in  order  that 
they  may  teach  their  children  properly;  and  in  an 
ordinary  parish  this  task  devolves  upon  the  clergy. 

Sickness  affords  another  great  opportunity  of 
teaching.  In  cases  of  prolonged  illness  a  whole 
course  of  instruction  can  be  given.  It  may  be 
necessary  to  train  the  uninstructed  in  repentance 
and  faith,  in  order  to  prepare  them  for  the  solemn 
office  of  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick,  which  the  Prayer 
Book  provides.  They  are  to  be  moved,  if  need  be, 
to  make  a  sacramental  confession  then  :  and  if  they 
have  grown  up  in  ignorance  about  it, — as  alas  !  very 
many  of  our  people  have — they  need  to  be  taught 
about  absolution.  In  any  case,  they  must  be  shown 
how,  by  self-examination,  contrition  and  amend- 
ment, to  make  a  good  confession  to  God,  whether 
as  a  preparation  for  a  new  life,  if  they  recover,  or 
for  death  and  judgment,  in  case  they  are  dying. 

But  perhaps  the  priest's  happiest  opportunity  of 
teaching  is  in  preparing  his  candidates  for  the 
bishop's  laying-on  of  hands  in  the  sacrament  of 
Confirmation.6  With  us  this  sacrament  is  confined 
to  the  bishop.  A  considerable  part  of  every  year 
is  taken  up  with  his  journeys  about  his  diocese, 
giving  Confirmation.  In  this  we  follow  strictly  the 
example  of  the  Apostolic  Church  in  sending  St. 
Peter  and  St.  John  to  impart  to  those  Samaritans 
whom  Philip  had  baptized  the  gift  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  by  the  laying-on  of  their  hands. 


40 


THE  CHURCH  CATECHISM 


It  is  customary  that  Confirmation  should  take 
place  about  the  time  when  the  soul  passes  out  of 
childhood,  and  begins  to  undertake  its  own  respon- 
sibilities. Those  boys  and  girls  who  attend  only  a 
primary  school  and  then  go  out  to  work  are 
generally  confirmed  at  this  important  point  of 
transition  in  their  lives.  They  then  receive  their 
first  communion  and  become  regular  communicants. 

The  preparation  for  this  occupies  at  least  a 
number  of  weeks;  part  of  it  is  given  in  class  or  in 
general  instruction,  and  part  is  more  personal  and 
individual.  The  proportion  of  these  two  elements 
varies  according  to  circumstances.  The  prepara- 
tion is  threefold— of  head  and  heart  and  conscience. 
The  Church  Catechism  is  provided  as  a  form  of 
instruction  for  the  first  object.  It  deals  with  the 
Baptismal  Covenant,  the  Creed,  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, The  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  two  universally 
necessary  sacraments  which  were  ordained  by 
Christ  Himself.  This  is  the  basis  of  the  instruction 
in  the  faith,  given  to  candidates  for  Confirmation, 
but  many  of  them  will  have  already  been  taught  it 
for  years. 

The  preparation  of  the  heart  is  designed  to  arouse 
a  real  personal  response  to  God's  call  and  love;  to 
secure  an  acceptance  of  the  faith  which  shall  be  vital 
and  spiritual,  not  merely  intellectual;  and  to  induce 
a  dedication  of  self  to  the  whole-hearted  service  of 
God.  It  is  the  reality  of  this  inner  dedication  by 
the  soul  of  itself  to  God  which  will  best  enable  the 
priest  to  decide  which  of  his  children  he  is  to  present 
to  the  bishop.    Some,  who  are  not  yet  ready,  he 


CONFESSION  AND  ABSOLUTION 


will  probably  defer  till  a  later  opportunity  can  be 
found  in  some  neighbouring  parish,  or  till  the 
bishop  comes  again  in  the  following  year. 

As  the  priest  sees  the  young  souls  opening  to  the 
love  of  God,  and  beginning  to  hunger  and  thirst, 
he  goes  on  to  help  them  in  the  preparation  and 
training  of  their  conscience.  They  need  instruction 
in  morals,  to  know  what  is  right :  and  in  repentance, 
that  they  may  return  to  God  when  they  do  wrong. 
Already  the  foundations  of  all  this,  as  of  the  rest, 
4have  been  laid  in  previous  religious  teaching:  but 
now,  a  more  conscious  and  thorough  repentance  is 
needed,  especially  in  preparation  for  the  Holy 
Eucharist.  To  some  of  the  candidates  this  is  their 
first  occasion  for  seeking  sacramental  confession  and 
absolution.  It  is  not  with  us  obligatory  to  do  so 
either  at  Confirmation  or  at  any  other  time,  except 
in  case  of  a  formal  readmission  after  excommunica- 
tion. It  was  formerly  obligatory,  for  a  period  of 
three  hundred  years  from  12 15  onwards.  But  the 
effects  of  such  compulsion  were  not  helpful  to  real 
penitence :  and  for  the  last  four  hundred  years  we 
have  returned  to  the  primitive  tradition  of  the 
Church  as  being  a  wiser  one.  Now  therefore  we 
are  content  merely  to  offer  the  opportunity  for 
sacramental  absolution  to  all,  leaving  each  to 
accept  it  or  not.  The  opportunity  in  fact  is  very 
variously  utilized — in  some  parishes  by  many,  in 
other  parishes  by  few  or  none.  On  the  whole  the 
use  of  it  is  increasing  very  much  :  and  this  increase 
goes  alongside  with  a  very  salutary  increase  in 
frequency  of  communion. 


42 


AIDS  TO  DEVOTION 


Some  of  the  candidates  will  know  the  service  of 
the  Holy  Communion  well  already  :  others  will  not, 
being-  more  accustomed  to  attend  Morning  and 
Evening  Prayer  :  but  all  are  trained  in  liturgical 
worship,  to  an  extent  which  is  probably  not  equalled 
elsewhere.  Our  people  know  and  follow  every 
point  in  the  services :  they  are  not  silent,  but 
habitually  join  in  all  the  services  and  sing  through- 
out. Indeed  they  are  impatient  of  anything 
happening  in  which  they  cannot  take  an  intelligent 
interest  and  share.  Everyone  has  books  and  uses 
them  in  church.  During  the  preparation  for  first 
communion  the  priest  will  see  that  every  candidate 
has,  besides  the  official  books,  a  book  also  of  private 
devotion  to  use  at  home  and  at  communion.  This 
will  contain  private  prayers  (which  will  for  the 
future  supersede  the  child's  prayers  which  have 
been  used  up  to  now)  :  helps  to  repentance  and 
preparation  for  the  Holy  Sacrament  :  i.e.,  self- 
examination  questions,  acts  of  contrition,  a  form  of 
confession  and  other  penitential  devotions.  It  will 
also  contain  prayers  for  private  use  before  Holy 
Communion,  intercessions  and  other  prayers  for 
use  during  the  service,  and  thanksgivings  to  be 
said  after  receiving.  Besides  that  there  will  be  in 
the  book  other  prayers  of  one  sort  or  another,  as  is 
suitable  to  the  individual,  e.g.,  prayers  in  sickness, 
or  in  preparation  for  death,  or  for  fasts  and  festivals. 
There  is  a  vast  number  of  manuals  of  this  sort 
available ;  so  it  is  easy  to  suit  all  classes. 

The  special  preparation  for  first  communion  may 
be  made  before  the  Confirmation ;  or  it  may  be 


OCCAvSIONS  FOR  COMMUNION  43 


after  it,  if  the  first  communion  follows  at  some 
little  interval  of  time.  The  minimum  rule  of  the 
Church  about  communion  is,  that  all  should  receive 
three  times  in  the  year,  of  which  Easter  is  to  be 
one.  In  practice  young  communicants  are  usually 
advised  to  begin  by  making  their  communion 
every  month,  and  to  come  monthly,  for  some  time 
at  least,  to  a  special  service  of  preparation  before  it. 
But  as  soon  as  may  be,  they  are  encouraged  to 
communicate  oftener;  and,  if  they  are  seriously 
seeking  to  grow  in  holiness,  to  do  so,  as  far  as  they 
can,  every  Sunday  and  Holy  Day. 

The  recovery  of  frequent  communion  in  this  last 
eighty  years  has  been  one  of  the  greatest  blessings 
which  God  has  given  us.  With  the  greater 
frequency  has  come  far  greater  devotion.  And  the 
Church  has  benefited  infinitely  by  recovering  its 
people  out  of  a  state  of  spiritual  starvation,  with 
only  three  or  four  communions  a  year,  into  the 
richness  and  vigour  of  that  life  of  union  with  Christ, 
which  He  has  bound  up  with  the  feeding  upon  His 
most  sacred  Body  and  Blood. 

Among  the  candidates  for  Confirmation  there  are 
probably  adults  also,  who  have  deferred  Confirma- 
tion through  carelessness  or  ignorance,  or  who 
have  come  back  to  the  Church  from  the  dissenters. 
In  the  last  case  they  may  or  may  not  have  already 
received  Holy  Baptism.  If  they  have  not,  they 
will  be  baptized  after  the  instruction  and  before  the 
Confirmation  :  and  there  are  few  more  joyous  days 
in  the  parish  priest's  year  than  those  when  he  sees 
the  fruit  of  his  labours  in  the  moving  service  of  the 


44  AUXILIARIES  TO  THE  CHURCH 


Baptism  of  Adults  and  in  the  first  communion  of 
his  children. 

4.  The  fourth  ideal  of  the  pastor  is  to  protect  his 
lambs  and  sheep  from  the  hireling  and  from  the 
wolf.  Time  would  fail  me  to  tell  of  all  the  organi- 
zations for  this  purpose  which  are  usual  or  frequent 
in  an  English  parish.  Some  are  quite  worldwide 
in  their  extent,  like  the  Girls'  Friendly  Society  for 
young  women  with  its  branches  and  homes  in  many 
parts  of  the  world.  The  boys  too  have  many 
organizations,  that  are  established  in  the  parish, 
but  are  wider  too  in  their  range,  like  the  quasi- 
military  organizations  of  the  Church  Lads'  Brigade 
or  the  Boy  Scouts.  The  mothers  have  their 
Mothers  Union,  which  is  a  general  society,  as  well 
as  meetings  and  classes  which  are  purely  parochial. 
In  the  last  ten  years  a  great  society  of  men  has  also 
grown  up  called  the  Church  of  England  Men's 
Society;  and  you  may  now  meet  men  wearing  its 
badge  in  all  quarters  of  the  globe.  Other  organiza- 
tions have  special  objects,  e.g.,  those  which  combat 
intemperance  or  discountenance  impurity.  The 
former  have  been  especially  blessed  :  and  by  the 
efforts  of  such  societies,  religious  and  secular, 
England  has  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century 
become  a  different  place,  so  far  as  sobriety  is 
concerned.  A  whole  generation  has  grown  up,  of 
whom  a  considerable  section  has  never  touched 
alcohol  :  and  this  teetotal  movement  has  quite 
transformed  public  opinion  about  intemperance  in 
many  strata  of  society. 

I  will  not  trouble  you  with  a  catalogue  of  these 


WORKS  &  WORKERS 


45 


countless  agencies.  We  have  too  many  of  them 
rather  than  too  few  :  for  the  English  mind  is  apt  to 
exceed  in  that  direction.  But  I  must  testify  to  the 
value  of  them  all  the  same  :  and  especially  in  two 
ways.  Such  expedients  protect  the  young  and  the 
weak.  They  bridge  over  the  difficult  time  between 
childhood  and  adult  life,  and  save  many  a  soul 
from  temptation  and  sin  :  though  the  devil  is  alert 
and  strong,  and  snatches  many  in  spite  of  the 
pastor's  best  endeavours. 

Further,  these  organizations  also  offer  opportu- 
nities of  working  for  the  Kingdom  of  God  to  many, 
who,  in  thankfulness  to  Him  for  what  He  has  done 
for  them,  are  anxious  to  spend  time  and  strength 
in  helping  others  and  advancing  God's  glory.  The 
parish  priest  tries  to  set  before  his  people  that  every 
citizen  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  must  be  a 
worker  for  the  Kingdom.  So,  in  spite  of  disap- 
pointments, and  many  of  them,  about  persons  and 
plans,  he  rejoices  to  find  himself  surrounded  by 
many  enthusiastic  helpers  in  all  the  manifold 
activities  of  the  parish ;  and  not  the  least  important 
or  least  active  of  them,  very  often,  are  his  own  wife 
and  daughters. 

5.  The  fifth  ideal  that  he  has  is  the  rescue  and 
recovery  of  the  perishing  and  of  those  that  are  out 
of  the  way  (Heb.  v.  2).  The  story  of  St.  John 
and  the  robber  is  perpetually  repeating  itself.  In 
a  small  parish  the  responsibility  for  each  soul  is  an 
ever-present  reality.  It  lays  a  clearly  recognizable 
number  of  burdens  on  the  heart  of  the  parish  priest, 
which  he  cannot  ever  forget.    In  a  large  parish  this 


46 


RESCUE  WORK 


sense  of  responsibility  for  every  one  cannot  exist 
in  the  same  degree.  But,  first,  there  will  be  those, 
with  whom  he  has  once  been  in  close  contact,  who 
are  now  going  astray,  and  have  to  be  recovered. 
Secondly,  there  are  always  the  careless,  whom  no 
one  has  ever  yet  influenced.  Yet  they  are  to  be 
won,  if  it  only  may  be  by  God's  mercy.  In  some 
parishes  highly  skilled  and  highly  organized  work 
is  needed  for  the  recovery  of  prostitutes,  or  those 
who  are  in  danger  of  falling  into  that  sad  class. 
As  a  rule  this  work  is  not  entirely  parochial,  but  it 
is  organized  for  a  town  as  a  whole,  and  worked  by 
a  committee  of  clergy  and  laity.  A  great  deal  of 
the  best  work  of  this  sort  is  done  by  the  Sister- 
hoods :  but  much  is  done  by  others  also.  There 
are  organizations  also  for  the  care  of  prisoners, 
reformatories  for  young  offenders  and  so  forth. 
With  all  of  these  the  parish  priest  will  be  in  touch 
to  whatever  extent  it  is  necessary.  But  stronger 
than  any  organization  is  the  redemptive  power  of 
love  and  self-sacrifice;  and  those  form  the  shep- 
herd's crook  with  which  he  holds  and  recovers  the 
straying  and  lost  sheep. 

6.  Sixthly,  the  parish  priest  must  have  his  ideal 
about  the  difficult  work  of  the  care  and  relief  of  the 
poor.  For  the  Church,  like  its  Master,  tends  the 
bodies,  as  well  as  the  souls,  of  men.  Few  parts  of 
his  work  are  more  perplexing.  Indiscriminate 
almsgiving  is  well  known  to  be  degrading  in  its 
effect.  If  the  Church  enables  people  to  live  without 
working,  it  is  putting  a  grave  temptation  in  their 
way.    On  the  other  hand  if  it  does  not  supply  the 


RELIEF  OF  THE  POOR 


47 


wants  of  the  needy,  it  fails  in  Christian  love.  How 
is  it  to  steer  between  these  two  forms  of  danger? 
This  problem  is  very  acute  in  the  towns.  There  is 
further  the  danger  that  people  may  make  godliness 
a  way  of  gain  and  profess  piety  in  order  to  secure 
help.  Then  the  Church's  spiritual  office  is  dragged 
in  the  mire  :  and  a  new  form  of  harm  is  done.  In 
all  ages  the  Church  has  found  its  relief  work  most 
difficult.  What  the  priest's  ideal  about  it  is  to  be, 
I  cannot  say.  There  is  no  very  clear  policy  pre- 
vailing in  our  English  parishes.  We  are  in  a 
condition  of  transition ;  and  the  tendency  is  more 
and  more  to  look  to  the  State  to  deal  not  only  with 
poverty  but  with  sickness  also.  This  tendency,  as 
it  advances,  relieves  the  parish  priest  of  a  good 
deal  of  the  burden,  and  throws  it  on  the  Christian 
and  philanthropic  conscience  of  the  public  as  a 
whole. 

But  even  so,  there  remains  a  work  of  mercy  and 
charity  for  the  parish.  The  parishioners  are  bound 
to  be  rich  in  Christian  almsgiving.  They  must 
care  for  the  sad  cases  in  their  own  place,  and 
especially  for  such  as  lie  outside  the  lines  of  govern- 
mental relief.  So  the  money  for  the  sick  and  needy 
is  collected  in  church  from  time  to  time  and  distri- 
buted, perhaps  by  a  representative  committee 
composed  of  clergy,  churchworkers  and  lay  people, 
including  the  lay  officials  called  churchwardens  and 
sidesmen.  These  officers  exist  in  every  parish  and 
(perhaps  with  others)  they  form  a  sort  of  council 
for  the  parish,  established  in  order  to  care  for  its 
interests.    Officially  they  are  entrusted  with  certain 


48 


LAY  HELP 


duties  and  powers,  financial  and  otherwise ;  and 
besides  they  are  now  undertaking  increasingly,  in 
conjunction  with  the  clergy,  all  sorts  of  other 
valuable  tasks  and  responsibilities. 

The  parish  priest  is  happy  in  having  a  good  body 
of  lay  men  and  women,  to  co-operate  with  him  and 
the  other  clergy  in  all  these  works.  He  can  always 
count  upon  some,  even  in  a  tiny  parish.  The 
tradition  of  the  English  landowner  is  one  of  great 
friendliness  and  co-operation ;  and  he  and  his 
family  will  often  be  among  the  most  zealous  sup- 
porters of  the  church  work.  Where  they  set  a  good 
example,  others,  who  are  less  well-to-do  and  less 
conspicuous,  will  join  in.  Even  if  they  do  not  lead 
the  way,  there  will  be  some  who  will  be  valuable 
helpers.  In  a  town  parish  with  a  mixed  population 
there  will  very  likely  be  a  large  body.  In  many  a 
parish  consisting  exclusively  of  the  poor  the  case 
is  harder  :  but  even  then,  though  overworked,  over- 
tired, underfed  and  sorely  strained,  some  will 
heroically  help  :  and  the  witness  and  power  of  such 
labours  is  of  priceless  value  to  the  Church. 

In  thus  describing  the  parish  priest's  ideal, 
perhaps  I  may  seem  to  you  to  have  spoken  too 
much  about  machinery  and  organization  and  too 
little  about  spiritual  forces — the  life  of  Faith,  the 
workings  of  Grace,  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  so  forth.  Well,  I  have  all  along  taken  for 
granted  that  those  are  the  things  of  real  importance. 
That  fact  we  all  know  :  and  those  things,  thank 
God,  we  all  share.  Besides  there  is  no  contradic- 
tion between  spiritual  forces  and  parochial  organiza- 


PARISHIONERS  AND  THE  PARISH 


tion.  Quite  the  contrary.  God's  way  with  us  is 
to  work  through  human  agencies.  And  if  we  have 
the  privilege  of  being  fellow-workers  with  the 
Almighty  and  Allwise  God  in  His  workings,  we 
feel  bound  to  make  our  efforts,  and  even  our 
machinery,  as  efficient  as  they  can  be.  For  God 
is  not  honoured  by  inefficiency  :  and  His  own  all- 
efficient  universe  is  the  model  of  all  our  service. 

7.  The  parish  priest  then  is  a  spiritual  man,  as 
befits  a  minister  of  God ;  all  the  power,  which  he  ad- 
ministers, is  spiritual  power  :  and  his  final  ideal  is 
that  this  spiritual  power  should  work  through  him 
and  through  all  the  parochial  undertakings  with  the 
best  possible  efficiency,  for  the  salvation  and  sancti- 
fication  of  man  and  for  the  honour  and  glory  of 
God. 

Let  me  now  use  up  the  time  that  remains  in 
trying  to  describe  the  parish  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  parishioner.  We  do  not  want  to  confine 
ourselves  to  a  purely  clerical  view  :  we  want  to  see 
what  it  represents  to  all  its  members.  The 
parishioner  finds  in  his  parish,  wherever  he  may 
be,  his  spiritual  home.  He  is  in  the  household  of 
God,  serving  Him  there;  and  he  has  God's  steward 
set  over  the  household  to  give  him  his  spiritual 
meat  in  due  season.  When  he  was  born,  the 
Church  took  him  under  its  care :  it  blessed  his 
mother  after  her  child-bearing,  and  gave  him  his 
baptism  :  and  perhaps  the  earliest  thing  that  he  can 
remember  is  the  privilege  and  wonder  of  being 
taken  to  church  as  a  tiny  boy.  Besides,  if  he  is 
happy  in  his  parents,  the  Church  has  been  with 


5° 


A  LAYMAN'S  SPIRITUAL  HISTORY 


him  at  home.  The  family  prayers  of  the  household 
at  home  have  made  him  familiar  with  some  sort  of 
corporate  worship  from  his  earliest  days  :  just  as 
the  private  prayers,  that  he  himself  has  been  taught 
to  say  morning  and  evening,  have  given  to  him  his 
own  personal  way  of  drawing  near  to  his  loving 
Father  and  Saviour. 

His  school  has  carried  on  the  tradition  of  the 
family  prayer,  and  there  his  day  begins  by  a  piece 
of  corporate  worship.  If  he  remains  at  home  dur- 
ing his  schooldays  and  does  not  go  away  to  a 
boarding-school,  the  link  with  his  parish  is  not  in 
any  way  lost.  If  he  is  musical  he  may  sing  in  the 
choir  :  if  he  is  devout  by  nature  he  may  have  the 
privilege  of  serving  the  priest  at  the  altar.  As  he 
grows  older  he  may  help  to  supervise  at  the 
catechism,  or  may  begin  to  teach  in  the  Sunday 
school. 

His  Confirmation  may,  please  God,  be  a  real 
spiritual  awakening,  so  that  he  passes  at  that  time 
out  of  the  stage  of  traditional  religion  into  the  con- 
sciousness of  his  own  personal  relation  to  God. 
Then  he  will,  of  course,  continue  as  a  regular  com- 
municant, and  grow  through  the  Holy  Sacrament 
in  the  life  of  holiness.  He  brings  his  work  to  be 
consecrated  to  God,  and  his  recreation  as  well,  in 
fact,  all  his  life  as  a  young  man.  Later  on  he 
brings  his  love  to  be  consecrated,  too;  and  some  of 
the  happiest  part  of  his  courtship  is  his  association 
with  his  fiancee  in  worship  or  in  the  work  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  Next  he  receives  the  Church's 
blessing  upon  his  marriage;  and,  in  due  time,  he 


ALMA  MATER 


5: 


comes  again  to  rejoice  in  the  glory  of  fatherhood 
and  brings  his  first-born  to  the  holy  font  of 
regeneration.  What  the  Church  has  taught  him, 
he  in  turn  teaches  his  children,  watching  over 
all  their  first  steps  in  that  life  of  prayer  and  grace, 
which  he  himself  has  been  brought  up  to  lead.  The 
church  festivals  bring  to  him  and  all  his  house- 
hold a  happiness  like  no  other  happiness  :  and  the 
fasts  have  equally  their  message  for  them  all,  en- 
joining watchfulness,  discipline,  penitence,  and 
teaching  them  to  love  the  life  and  sufferings  of  our 
Lord. 

When  he  is  sick,  the  Church  is  at  his  side  with 
its  message,  its  warnings  and  its  consolations.  It 
brings  him  absolution,  if  he  desires  it,  in  his  peni- 
tence, and  unction,7  if  he  claims  it,  in  dangerous 
illness.  In  the  hour  of  death  it  watches  by  him 
and  prays  with  him.  It  cares  for  the  body  that  he 
leaves  behind,  and  performs  for  it  the  last  offices. 
It  remembers  him  in  thanksgiving  and  prayer,  at 
every  Liturgy,  among  those  who  have  died  in  God's 
faith  and  fear;  and  prays  that,  in  the  company  of 
all  God's  faithful  people,  he  may  be  a  partaker  of 
the  heavenly  kingdom. 

Thus  all  life  through  he  is  in  the  keeping  of  the 
Church  within  the  special  fold  of  his  own  parish. 


LECTURE  III. 


Clerical  Life. 

The  clergy  are  but  a  small  part  of  the  Church,  but 
an  immense  deal  depends  upon  their  training.  I 
propose,  therefore,  to  take  up  a  good  part  of  the 
lecture  to-day  with  some  account  of  the  provision 
and  training  of  priests  in  the  English  Church.  I 
say  priests  because  with  us  the  diaconate  is  very 
rarely  a  lasting  grade  :  with  very  few  exceptions  our 
deacons  pass  to  the  priesthood,  after  serving  a 
year  or  more  in  the  diaconate.  There  is  no  special 
part  for  the  deacon  in  the  English  Liturgy  or  at 
other  services.  At  a  solemn  Liturgy  some  one  will 
act  as  deacon,  and  some  one  as  subdeacon ;  but 
generally  whoever  does  so  has  been  already 
advanced  to  the  priesthood.  The  deacon  with  us 
is,  as  it  were,  an  apprentice.  He  has  only  restricted 
powers,  because  as  a  deacon  he,  of  course,  cannot 
absolve  or  bless  or  consecrate.  The  preparation 
and  the  qualifications  are  therefore  the  same, 
normally,  for  both  orders. 

Our  English  tradition  is  that  the  clergy  should 
have  had,  as  far  as  possible,  the  same  education  as 
other  well-educated  young  men,  and  should  have  it 
in  conjunction  with  those  who  are  preparing  to 
follow  other  callings — to  be  lawyers,  doctors, 
engineers,  civil  servants,  and  the  like.  There  are, 
indeed,  some  elements  in  the  priest's  calling  which 

52 


THEOLOGICAL  COLLEGES 


53 


necessarily  separate  him  off  from  others;  but  our 
theory  is  that,  apart  from  these  elements,  he  should 
be  as  much  like  others  in  upbringing  as  possible, 
so  that  thus  the  disadvantage  may  be  avoided  of 
the  clergy  forming,  through  isolation,  in  their  most 
impressionable  years,  a  class  apart  from  the  rest  of 
their  fellows. 

In  past  years  the  universities  alone  supplied 
theological  education,  and  gave  the  normal  training 
to  the  clergy.  But  in  the  course  of  the  nineteenth 
century  the  old  universities,  which  had  been  exclu- 
sively for  members  of  the  Church,  were  thrown 
open  to  all.  Strong  faculties  of  church  theology 
were  still  retained  both  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  : 
but  the  character  of  these  universities  and  their 
personnel  were  largely  changed  :  so  that  they  could 
no  longer  claim,  in  the  same  way  as  before,  to  serve 
as  the  sole  training  ground  of  the  clergy.  Seventy- 
five  years  ago  began  the  foundation  of  special 
theological  colleges  :  they  were  established  partly 
for  those  who  were  unable  to  have  a  university 
course ;  but  still  more  for  men  who  already  had  re- 
ceived their  general  training  at  the  university,  who 
had  obtained  their  degrees,  and  who  needed  sub- 
sequently a  quiet  place  for  theological  learning  and 
spiritual  preparation.  Thirty  of  such  colleges  now 
exist  in  England.  None  of  them  are  large :  some 
are  quite  small;  the  largest  have  sixty  to  eighty 
students.  It  is  thought  that  this  final  preparation 
is  best  done  in  small  groups.  When  these  colleges 
were  first  founded  they  were  regarded  with  some 
suspicion,  as  tending  to  separate  the  clergy  off  from 


54  GROWTH  OF  THE  UNIVERSITIES 


others;  but  that  idea  has  vanished.  Now  the 
bishops  demand,  in  most  cases,  that  whatever  else 
a  man  may  have  had  as  general  education,  he 
should  also  have  some  special  preparation,  pre- 
ferably in  a  theological  college. 

It  must  be  remembered  also  that  during  this  same 
period  university  education  has  grown  very  fast. 
Instead  of  the  four  universities  existing  in  1840, 
there  are  now  twelve  :  and  the  new  universities  are 
not  expensive  and  aristocratic  institutions,  like 
Oxford  and  Cambridge.  These  new  facilities  make 
it  possible  that,  before  long,  there  will  be  required 
normally  of  all  candidates  for  the  priesthood  a 
university  education  and  a  degree,  together  with  a 
special  theological  training  as  well. 

Hitherto  we  have  suffered  a  good  deal  in  the  Eng- 
lish Church  from  being  too  aristocratic.  Part  of 
the  reason  has  been  that  the  clergy  have  so  largely 
(in  fact,  almost  exclusively  of  late)  been  drawn  from 
the  wealthier  classes,  who  alone  could  afford  to 
spend  the  money  needed  for  the  education  of  a  son 
for  the  priesthood.  That  fact,  no  doubt,  has 
brought  with  it  some  advantages,  for  it  has  kept  the 
well-to-do  people  in  natural  touch  with  the  Church, 
at  any  rate,  on  the  social  side  :  and  that  is  valuable. 
But  it  has  also  brought  great  disadvantages.  While 
the  clergy  have  had  easy  access  to  the  rich  and 
the  poor,  they  have  been  less  in  touch  with  the 
middle  classes.  In  fact,  dissent  has  its  stronghold 
in  these  middle  classes ;  and  its  strength  depends  a 
good  deal  on  its  social  environment.  The  begin- 
nings of  this  cleavage  lie  some  three  centuries  back 


DEMOCRACY  OF  THE  PRIESTHOOD  55 

in  our  history,  when  the  Parliament  and  the  middle 
classes  united  against  the  King,  the  Church  and  the 
aristocrats,  in  the  Great  Rebellion.  And  it  is  only 
slowly  that  the  change  is  coming  about  which  will 
enable  the  Church  to  fulfil  its  duty  more  fully  to  all 
classes. 

It  was  also  a  great  disadvantage  that  the  priest- 
hood was  so  largely  closed,  as  it  was,  to  the  sons  of 
those  who  had  only  moderate  or  small  means.  A 
good  deal  is  now  being  done  to  remedy  this  defect : 
funds  are  being  provided,  and  colleges  have  been 
set  up  where  men  who  have  their  vocation  from  God 
can  get  a  proper  training  for  the  priesthood  at  the 
Church's  expense.  We  shall  hope,  therefore,  in- 
creasingly to  add  to  the  ranks  of  the  clergy  men  of 
all  sorts  of  antecedents,  and  so  have  a  more  repre- 
sentative ministry.  At  the  same  time,  since 
facilities  for  education  are  greatly  increasing,  it  will 
be  possible  to  secure  that,  though  the  door  is 
thrown  open  wider  to  all  classes,  those  who  pass 
through  it  shall  not  be  less  well  educated,  less  cul- 
tured, or  less  spiritually  equipped  than  before.  On 
the  contrary,  the  requirements  and  the  standard 
reached  are  daily  growing  higher;  and  the  priest 
of  to-day  is  technically  far  better  equipped  for  his 
sacred  office  than  hitherto — though  there  is  still 
much  room  for  improvement. 

There  is  also  another  reason  why  those  who  are 
to  be  priests  should  have  the  general  education 
that  others  have,  and  be  in  touch  with  all  sides 
of  intellectual  life.  It  is  of  crucial  importance 
that  they  should  be  able  to  set  the  teaching 


56       HISTORICAL  AND  NATURAL  SCIENCE 


of  the  faith  in  a  proper  light  before  the  well- 
educated  classes  as  well  as  before  those  of 
less  intellectual  attainments.  Theology  must  con- 
tinually be  absorbing-  into  itself  all  the  new  acquisi- 
tions which  God  continually  gives  in  the  growth 
of  human  knowledge;  so  that  all  the  treasures 
revealed  as  knowledge  increases,  may  be  utilised 
in  expounding  more  perfectly  the  "faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints."  Its  teachers  must  also 
be  prepared  to  meet  the  objections,  scruples  and 
difficulties  of  the  day.  Such  things  are  always 
presenting  themselves  as  hindrances  to  the  believer, 
but  in  varying  forms  in  each  succeeding  generation. 

Now,  our  traditions  of  general  education  are  still 
very  much  bound  up  with  mediaeval  precedents. 
Philosophy,  mathematics  and  rhetoric  (or  arts), 
with  a  sound  knowledge  of  the  classical  languages 
of  Latin  and  Greek— these  still  form  the  traditional 
studies  preparatory  to  theology.  But  in  these  days, 
historical  science  and  natural  science  are  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  taking  their  places  in  the  scheme  of 
university  studies  :  and  this  change  is  having  an 
effect  upon  the  training  preparatory  to  theology. 
It  is  from  these  sides  that  a  special,  and  somewhat 
novel,  form  of  attack  upon  the  faith  is  being  made. 
It  is  important  therefore  that  there  should  be  among 
the  clergy  men  trained  in  the  science  of  historical 
criticism  and  in  the  various  branches  of  physical 
science,  as  well  as  those  trained  upon  the  old  lines 
in  philosophy  and  letters. 

At  present  the  historical  side  is  well  represented 
among  us :  but  far  too  few  of  our  candidates  are 


THE  COLLEGIATE  SYSTEM 


57 


educated  in  the  physical  sciences.  It  is  difficult  to 
combine  such  studies  with  the  philosophy  that  is 
needed  for  theological  competence  and  the  know- 
ledge of  Greek  and  Latin,  which  our  bishops  still 
regard  as  a  sine  qua  non  in  theological  candidates. 
Consequently  we  are  not  as  well  equipped  as  we 
ought  to  be,  with  men  who  understand  the  class  of 
mind  that  has  mainly  been  educated  in  physical 
science,  and  who  are  able  to  meet  its  difficulties. 
There  are,  however,  some  men  who  are  dealing  very 
ably  and  successfully  with  problems  of  this  sort : 
and  in  the  intellectual  centres  such  as  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  the  Church  now  holds  its  own  better 
than  it  did  in  the  end  of  the  last  century.  The 
establishment  of  new  strong  church  institutions  in 
the  universities  has  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  this  : 
but  it  is  brought  about  much  more  by  the  general 
influence  in  university  life,  of  teachers  and  pro- 
fessors, lay  and  clerical,  who  are  both  theologically 
competent  and  effective  as  apologists. 

The  old  university  life  in  England,  as  you  know, 
differs  very  widely  from  what  is  customary  in  con- 
tinental universities.  The  student  lives  a  corporate 
life  in  a  college  under  the  discipline  of  the  college 
authorities.  The  college  is  his  home,  and  in  many 
ways  counts  for  more  to  him  than  the  university. 
A  college  is  still  in  many  ways  like  a  monastery  :  it 
has  its  chapel,  its  dining  hall,  its  library,  its  place 
of  social  intercourse,  as  well  as  its  lecture  rooms. 
In  the  midst  of  this  corporate  life  the  theological 
student  lives,  not  outwardly  distinguished  from 
others  except  by    the  fact    that  he    is  studying 


58 


THREE  DEPARTMENTS  OF  TRAINING 


theology.  The  modern  universities  have  not  yet 
been  able  to  do  much  to  develop  the  collegiate 
system  within  themselves.  That  will  come  by  de- 
grees :  meanwhile  they  are  much  more  like  the  con- 
tinental and  Scottish  universities,  where  there  is 
little  corporate  life  for  the  student  except  such  as 
he  makes  for  himself,  little  discipline,  and  little 
organised  fellowship.  In  them  the  theological 
student  is  entirely  merged  in  the  general  university 
life. 

But  there  are  theological  colleges  now  to  be 
considered,  which,  unlike  the  open  colleges  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  admit  only  theological 
students,  and  cater  for  them.  Some  are  in  the 
university  towns  and  blend  in  the  university  life : 
but  most  of  them  are  designedly  placed  elsewhere, 
to  serve  as  places  of  training  subsequent  to  and 
differing  from  the  university.  I  must  pass  on  now 
to  describe  the  theological  training  itself  in  the 
theological  colleges,  whether  at  a  university  or  else- 
where. 

There  are  three  principal  departments  to  be 
taken  into  account — the  theological,  the  spiritual 
and  the  technical  training.  Some  colleges  are  in- 
tended entirely  for  those  who  have  taken  their 
degree  in  the  university  :  and  the  course  then  lasts 
only  a  year,  or  a  year  and  a  quarter.  This  is 
enough  for  those  who  have  already  studied  theology 
during  their  university  course;  but  it  is  not  very 
adequate  for  those  who  have  not.  Other  colleges 
have  longer  courses,  which  more  and  more  are 
coming  to  include  the  university  work  as  well  as 


SEMINARY  LIFE 


59 


the  special  preparation  for  the  ministry.  In  nearly 
all  colleges  the  students  live  together  at  the  college ; 
the  student  therefore  finds  around  him  a  strong 
corporate  life,  which  shows  itself  not  only  in  the 
common  intellectual  training,  but  also  in  common 
services  and  devotions,  in  social  life,  and — as  you 
would  expect  of  Englishmen — in  athletics  as  well. 

Each  student  has  his  room  or  his  two  rooms  :  in 
most  colleges  all  have  their  meals  together :  they 
join  in  daily  services  in  the  chapel  of  the  college, 
or  in  the  cathedral  church  if,  as  is  often  the  case,  the 
college  is  situated  under  its  shadow.  The  day  is 
distributed  as  follows  :  After  the  early  services  and 
a  time  for  Bible-study  or  meditation,  lectures 
occupy  a  great  deal  of  the  morning.  Then,  after 
midday  prayer,  comes  dinner.  The  early  part  of 
the  afternoon  is  probably  given  up  to  exercise  or 
games,  and  in  some  degree  to  gaining  an  insight 
into  parochial  methods.  The  late  afternoon  is  pro- 
bably taken  up  with  private  study,  and  the  prepara- 
tion or  correction  of  work ;  and  after  an  interval  for 
evening  prayer,  supper,  and  social  intercourse, 
there  is  a  further  period  of  study.  The  day  closes 
with  the  office  of  compline  or  some  such  devotions. 

The  subjects  of  instruction  are  principally  five  : 
Dogmatic  theology,  the  Bible,  the  History  of  the 
Church,  Patristic  learning,  and  Liturgical  science; 
but  there  are  many  supplementary  studies.  A 
resident  staff  of  priests  gives  the  main  part  of  the 
instruction,  and  these  clergy  take  also  an  intimate 
part  in  all  the  life  of  the  college.  Others  come  to 
give  additional  lectures,  especially  on  the  technical 


6o 


AIMS  OF  THE  STUDENT 


side  of  the  instruction,  such  as  the  art  of  good  read- 
ing and  singing,  the  science  of  teaching  and 
catechising  the  young  in  school  or  in  church, 
pastoral  methods,  and  the  like.  A  good  deal  of 
stress  is  now  laid  on  the  acquisition  of  at  least  some 
elementary  knowledge  of  economics.  The  clergy 
play  such  an  important  part  in  every  side  of  the  life 
of  their  parishioners,  and  exercise  such  a  varied  in- 
fluence, that  they  are  necessarily  brought  into  touch 
with  the  industrial  questions,  and  the  social 
problems  of  all  sorts,  in  which  England  is  now  so 
greatly  interested.  There  is  a  great  society  of 
churchmen,  many  of  them  clergy,  whose  chief 
object  is  "to  claim  for  the  Christian  law  the  ulti- 
mate authority  to  rule  social  practice,"  or,  again,  "to 
present  Christ  in  practical  life  as  the  living  Master 
and  King."  Some  at  least  of  the  students  have 
already  been  initiated  at  the  university  by  this 
Christian  Social  Union  into  the  practical  appli- 
cation of  Christian  ethics  to  the  questions  of  the 
day  :  and  this  work  continues  at  the  Theological 
College.  The  same  is  the  case  with  regard  to  mis- 
sions to  the  heathen,  which  are  much  studied. 

The  devotional  and  spiritual  instruction  is  con- 
cerned with  the  inner  life  of  the  priest.  The 
student  must  learn  prayer,  in  theory  and  in  practice. 
He  must  also  acquire  skill  in  the  devotional  study 
of  the  Bible,  for  in  it  he  is  to  find  food  whereon  his 
own  soul  can  feed.  He  must  grow  in  penitence, 
too,  and  in  thanksgiving.  He  must  have  a  spiritual 
conception,  as  well  as  an  academic  one,  of  the  nature 
and  power  of  grace,  and  a  knowledge  of  the  worjs- 


SPIRITUAL  TRAINING 


61 


ing  of  grace  in  the  sacraments.  Particularly 
during  his  time  of  close  preparation,  he  must  be 
testing  the  reality  of  his  own  vocation  to  the  priest- 
hood. He  must  be  looking  up  to  Jesus  Christ  like 
the  converted  St.  Paul,  asking,  "  Lord,  what  wilt 
Thou  have  me  to  do  ?"  ;  and  by  learning  the  answer 
in  his  own  soul,  he  must  be  giving  the  response 
and  making  that  surrender  of  his  whole  self  in 
sacrifice  to  God,  which  the  priesthood  requires. 
When  he  is  ordained,  solemn  questions  will  be  asked 
of  him,  to  which  he  must  make  a  public  reply — Is 
he  called  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  the  ministry  ? 
according  to  the  will  of  Christ  ?  and  the  order  of  the 
English  Church  ?  Will  he,  as  a  deacon,  do  the 
deacon's  work  gladly  and  willingly  :  or,  as  a  priest, 
will  he  diligently  minister  the  Doctrine,  Sacraments 
and  Discipline  of  Christ,  banishing  error  and 
teaching  the  faith  ?  Will  he  be  diligent  in  prayer 
and  in  the  study  of  the  Scriptures,  and  set  an 
example  of  holy  living  to  the  flock  ?  Will  he  be 
obedient  to  ecclesiastical  superiors?  These  solemn 
questions  will  form  a  searching  element  in  his 
ordination ;  therefore  part  of  his  spiritual  prepara- 
tion will  be  to  weigh  these  things  beforehand. 

He  will  have  many  helps  in  all  this, — the  com- 
panionship of  like  minded  friends,  the  counsel  of 
the  officials  of  the  college,  the  regular  round  of 
devotion,  with  special  exhortation  and  instructions 
at  frequent  intervals.  Several  times  also  in  the  year 
a  day  or  more  will  be  set  apart  in  the  college  wholly 
for  such  exercises — days  of  retreat,  as  we  call  them 
— when  there  is  universal  quiet,  when  study  ceases, 


62 


TECHNICAL  TRAINING 


and  the  soul  retires  from  all  ordinary  occupations 
in  order  to  commune  at  length  and  more  closely 
with  God.  So  the  rough  metal  is  being  tested  and 
forged  into  a  weapon  apt  for  the  Master's  use. 

There  is  much  variation  in  the  amount  of 
technical  training  given  at  different  colleges.  All 
of  them  will  train  in  the  art  of  preaching,  in  the 
technical  details  of  the  administration  of  the  sacra- 
ments, in  pastoral  skill,  and  the  art  of  the  physician 
of  souls,  besides  other  subjects  already  mentioned. 
This  will  not  be  merely  in  the  lecture-room.  In 
larger  or  smaller  degree  there  will  also  be  oppor- 
tunity for  practical  experience.  But  there  are  many 
things  in  which  instruction  given  to  a  student  is 
too  empirical  to  be  of  much  value.  Each  man  must 
learn  by  experience;  and  especially  he  will  have 
the  opportunity  for  this  during  his  time  of  his 
apprenticeship  as  a  deacon.  In  our  college  at  Mir- 
field  it  is  the  custom  for  our  old  students  to  re- 
assemble, a  year  after  they  left  college,  and  others 
with  them,  for  a  week  of  pastoral  and  practical  in- 
struction. It  is  much  easier  then,  than  earlier,  to 
give  detailed  instruction  as  to  the  special  duties  of 
the  priesthood  that  are  soon  to  come  upon  them, 
especially  the  hearing  of  confessions  and  the  cele- 
brating of  the  Holy  Mysteries. 

Many  a  time,  it  may  be,  the  student  will  feel  over- 
whelmed by  the  greatness  of  the  task  which  lies  be- 
fore him,  and  by  his  own  unworthiness.  But  if 
the  call  of  God  is  real,  and  his  own  response  is 
honest,  he  will  learn  more  and  more  to  offer  up  his 
life  in  sacrifice  to  God,  and  to  the  cause  of  the 


CHOICE  OF  SPHERE 


63 


Church ;  and  already  the  reassurance  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  will  begin  to  steady  his  purpose,  to  clear  his 
outlook,  and  to  deepen  his  surrender. 

As  the  end  of  his  training  draws  near,  he  must 
take  steps  concerning  his  future  sphere  of  work. 
It  is  very  probable  that  he  has  not  been,  so  far,  in 
direct  personal  touch  with  any  bishop.  He  has 
chosen  his  college  for  himself,  and  he  is  not 
there  as  the  nominee  or  subject  of  any  bishop.  We 
have  not  in  England  the  good  custom,  which  pre- 
vails in  America  and  elsewhere,  that  the  bishop 
supervises  his  candidates  from  the  time  when  they 
begin  their  theological  course.  Nor  have  we  kept 
the  mediaeval  custom  that  he  should  belong  to  the 
diocese  in  which  he  was  born  or  in  which  he  lives. 
He  will  belong  to  the  diocese  where  he  goes  to 
work. 

Probably  the  college  authorities  will  tell  him  of 
a  sphere  of  work,  of  a  good  parish  priest  who  wants 
an  assistant.  Or  he  may  put  himself  in  the  hands 
of  some  bishop  and  go  to  the  parish  which  the 
bishop  chooses  for  him.  The  more  frequent 
occurrence  is  that  he  first  negociates  with  his  future 
rector;  and,  when  accepted  by  him,  he  then  applies 
to  the  bishop  of  that  diocese.  If  his  papers  and 
testimonials  are  satisfactory,  the  bishop  will  accept 
him  provisionally :  then  he  will  prepare  for  the 
examination  in  theology.  Also  notice  will  be  given 
publicly  in  church  that  he  is  a  candidate  for  Holy 
Orders,  so  that  those  who  know  him  may  have  an 
opportunity  of  objecting,  if  they  have  anything 
against  him.      The  archdeacons  and  examining 


64 


ORDINATION 


chaplains  conduct  the  examination,  and  if  he  satis- 
fies them,  he  will  be  told  to  present  himself  at  the 
bishop's  house  a  few  days  before  the  ordination. 

His  college  course  probably  closes  with  a  day  or 
two  spent  in  retreat,  so  that  in  the  silence,  and  with 
the  help  of  services,  addresses  and  an  experienced 
spiritual  guide,  he  may  make  his  final  decision. 

The  days  preceding  the  ordination,  which  he 
passes  with  the  bishop,  will  also  be  chiefly  spent  in 
spiritual  exercises  by  all  the  candidates  of  the 
diocese  gathered  together  from  their  various  col- 
leges and  places  of  training.  In  England  we  have 
had,  at  any  rate  since  the  time  of  Archbishop 
Theodore  in  747,  the  custom  whereby  the  ordina- 
tions are  held  on  the  Sunday  following  the  four 
quarterly  fasts  called  Ember  Days.  These  four 
separate  weeks  are  specially  observed  everywhere  as 
days  of  intercession  for  the  clergy,  and  for  those 
who  are  about  to  be  ordained.  So  the  candidates 
who  are  to  become  deacons  and  priests  have  the 
support  of  the  special  prayer  of  the  Church  all 
through  this  crucial  week,  and  the  bishop  has  the 
same  help  in  the  difficult  responsibility  of  choosing 
finally  whom  he  will  ordain. 

Sunday  comes.  The  service  is  in  the  cathedral 
church.  There  is  a  great  gathering  of  clergy  and 
of  friends  and  relations.  Our  ordination  services 
for  priesthood  and  diaconate  are  longer  than  yours; 
and  though  they  are  not  unlike  them,  it  may  be  in- 
teresting to  describe  them.  The  ordinations  take 
place  during  the  Liturgy;  the  deacons  are  ordained 
after  the  Epistle,  and  a  newly  ordained  deacon  then 


THE  ORDINATION  SERVICE 


65 


reads  the  Gospel;  after  the  Gospel,  the  priests  are 
ordained,  and  the  Creed  follows.  When  a  bishop 
is  consecrated,  the  ceremony  follows  the  Creed.  So 
each  order  comes  in  its  turn,  in  ascending  scale  of 
dignity.  But  there  are  preliminaries  to  the  Liturgy. 
A  sermon  precedes  it,  and  when  that  is  over,  first 
the  candidates  for  the  diaconate,  and  then  those  for 
the  priesthood  are  presented  by  the  archdeacon  to 
the  bishop  as  he  is  seated  in  the  sanctuary  before 
the  altar.  The  archdeacon,  in  response  to  the 
bishop's  enquiry,  assures  him  that  he  is  satisfied  of 
their  fitness.  Then  the  bishop  gives  the  people  an 
opportunity  of  raising  an  objection  to  any  of  the 
men  if  need  be.  This  is  the  one  little  bit  which  re- 
mains of  the  old  right  of  election  which  in  primitive 
Christian  days  the  people  exercised.  Then  the 
Litany  is  sung  with  special  prayer  for  the  candi- 
dates, and  next  the  Liturgy  is  begun. 

After  the  Epistle  the  bishop  is  seated  in  his  chair, 
and  the  candidates  for  the  diaconate  are  drawn  up 
before  him.  He  puts  to  them  the  seven  questions, 
which  I  have  already  mentioned,  and  they  reply 
to  each.  Then  in  turn  each  candidate  kneels  before 
him,  and  the  bishop  performs  two  actions.  First 
of  all,  with  laying  on  of  his  hands,  he  gives  him 
authority  to  execute  the  office  of  a  deacon  in  the 
name  of  the  Holy  Trinity.  Secondly,  he  hands  to 
him  the  New  Testament,  authorising  him  at  the 
same  time  to  read  the  holy  Gospel  and  to  preach 
the  word.    So  the  deacon  is  ordained. 

The  service  for  the  priesthood  is  fuller,  and  richer. 
After  the  Gospel  has  been  read  these  candidates,  like 


66  QUESTIONS  AND  PROMISES 


the  former,  are  brought  before  the  bishop.  A  solemn 
charge  as  to  the  duties  of  the  priesthood  is  given 
to  them  before  the  eight  questions  of  the  priest- 
hood are  put  to  them.  This  charge,  being  very 
biblical,  is  very  similar  in  its  outlines  to  the  Russian 
treatise  "  On  the  Duty  of  Parish  Priests."  It 
emphasizes  the  greatness  of  the  priesthood,  the 
precious  character  of  the  souls  committed  to  the 
priests'  care,  and  the  heinousness  of  the  sin  of 
negligence  in  the  pastoral  office.  Consequently  it 
speaks  of  the  absolute  importance  of  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  the  necessity  of  prayer,  study  of 
the  Scripture,  and  freedom  from  worldly  cares  and 
occupations ;  and  finally  it  exhorts  them  to  personal 
sanctification  of  life,  in  order  that  they  may  be  good 
examples  of  the  flock.  The  eight  questions  then 
follow;  and  when  the  candidates  have  answered, 
and  their  promises  are  made,  the  bishop  prays  that 
they  have  power  to  perform  their  office  faithfully. 
Then  there  is  a  time  of  silent  prayer,  in  order  that 
the  congregation  may,  in  its  own  way,  join  in 
this  petition  :  and  the  solemn  silence  is  finally 
broken  by  the  great  Latin  hymn  of  invocation  to 
the  Holy  Spirit,  Veni  creator  spiritus,  which  all 
sing  together  in  English. 

Next  comes  the  solemn  prayer  said  by  the  bishop 
over  all  the  candidates,  praising  God  for  the 
apostolic  ministry,  and  praying  that  the  Kingdom 
of  God  may  be  enlarged  by  the  priesthood  of  those 
who  are  being  newly  ordained.  Finally  comes  the 
laying  on  of  hands,  which  is,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
deacons,  a  double  ceremony.    The  priests  of  the 


THE  SPIRITUAL  KNIGHTHOOD  67 


cathedral  and  others,  grouped  round  the  bishop,  but 
standing  while  he  is  seated,  join  with  the  bishop  in 
the  laying  on  of  hands.  The  words  which  the 
bishop  says  meanwhile  to  each  in  turn  are  as 
follows :  — 

Receive  the  Holy  Ghost  for  the  office  and  work 
of  a  priest  in  the  Church  of  God,  now  committed 
unto  thee    by  the  imposition  of    our  hands. 
Whose  sins  thou  dost  forgive,  they  are  forgiven  ; 
and  whose  sins  thou  dost  retain,  they  are  retained. 
And  be  thou  a  faithful  Dispenser  of  the  word  of 
God  and  of  His  holy  sacraments;  in  the  Name,  etc. 
Each  also  receives  the  Bible,   with  authority  to 
preach  the  Word  of  God  and  to  minister  the  Holy 
Sacraments.    The  newly  ordained  priests  remain 
grouped  round  the  altar  and  join  with  the  bishop 
in  the  celebration  of  the  Holy  Mysteries.8  Special 
prayers  are  also  said  at  the  close  for  those  who  are 
newly  ordained.    So  the  eventful  service  ends,  and 
the  young  deacon  or  priest  goes  forth  to  His 
Master's  work  in  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

After  he  has  served  some  time  as  an  assistant, 
and  has  gained  experience  in  his  holy  task,  he  will 
probably  himself  be  appointed  to  a  cure  of  souls, 
to  take  charge  of  a  parish,  and  probably  to  have 
others  working  in  their  turn  under  him.  There  is 
often  now  an  intermediate  position,  which  he  will 
fill,  between  being  a  mere  assistant  and  having  his 
own  independent  cure.  For  in  many  of  our  large 
parishes  there  is  more  than  one  church  :  usually  the 
rector,  while  he  controls  the  whole,  is  himself  prin- 
cipally occupied  at  the  mother  church ;  so  he  hands 


68  METHODS  OF  APPOINTMENT 


over  the  working  of  a  daughter  church  to  one  of  his 
assistant  clergy,  who  will  be  responsible  for  it  under 
the  rector's  supervision.  This  position  of  a  "  curate- 
in-charge  "  varies  according  to  local  circumstances. 
It  very  often  is  almost  like  an  independent  cure, 
especially  if  the  daughter  church  is  large  and  im- 
portant, and  has  become  the  centre  of  many 
activities  of  its  own.  If  he  is  placed  in  such  a  posi- 
tion as  this,  the  young  priest,  in  a  way,  serves  a 
second  apprenticeship ;  for  he  learns  in  this  posi- 
tion how  to  manage  a  parish  without  being  wholly 
left  to  his  own  devices.  So  when  the  time  comes 
for  him  to  have  a  wholly  independent  sphere,  he  is 
prepared  for  it. 

The  call  to  an  independent  sphere  may  come  to 
him  simply  from  the  bishop  :  but  in  England  the 
patronage,  i.e.,  the  right  to  nominate  a  priest  to  the 
bishop  for  institution  to  a  certain  cure,  is,  to  a  con- 
siderable extent,  in  lay  hands.  This  leads  me  there- 
fore to  say  something  about  our  methods  of  appoint- 
ment. 

Let  us  begin  with  the  bishop.  When  a  see  falls 
vacant,  the  care  of  it  is  in  the  hands  of  the  metro- 
politan, until  a  new  bishop  is  provided.  In  early 
days  in  England  bishops  were  appointed  by  the 
King;  but  even  in  Anglo-Saxon  times  there  was 
some  election,  though  the  decisive  voice  was  the 
voice  of  the  King.  The  same  system  prevails  now. 
From  the  twelfth  to  the  sixteenth  century  the  filling 
of  vacancies  was  a  point  to  be  settled  mainly  be- 
tween the  King  and  the  Pope.  As  a  rule  the 
diocesan  clergy  or  the  chapter  of  the  cathedral 


ELECTION  OF  A  BISHOP 


69 


church  had  little  or  no  voice  in  the  matter.  When, 
however,  papal  jurisdiction  over  the  English 
Church  ceased,  a  return  was  made  to  the  old 
system ;  that  is  to  say,  there  was  an  election  by  the 
clergy  of  the  cathedral  as  representing  the  diocese, 
but  the  King's  nomination  to  them  of  the  candidate 
whom  he  wished  to  see  bishop,  was  practically  de- 
cisive. Such  is  the  method  which  prevails  now. 
The  change  which  has  come  about  in  our  English 
Constitution,  so  as  to  transform  the  position  of  the 
King  from  a  personal  monarchy  into  a  constitu- 
tional and  parliamentary  monarchy,  has  made  this 
arrangement  less  satisfactory  for  Church  patronage 
to-day  than  it  was  formerly  :  for  the  chief  respon- 
sibility now  rests  with  the  Prime  Minister  of  the 
day,  acting  with  and  on  behalf  of  the  King.  In 
practice,  however,  this  old  traditional  plan  has  for  a 
century  or  more  worked  very  fairly  well.  People 
are  slow  in  England  to  raise  objections  to  something 
which  works  tolerably  well,  though  it  may  be 
illogical  or  even  theoretically  indefensible.  This 
system  therefore  continues  for  the  present. 

The  plan  which  places  the  election  in  the  hands 
of  the  Chapter  of  the  cathedral  church  is  also  not 
so  justifiable  as  it  was,  because  the  Chapter  is  now 
much  less  representative  of  the  diocese  than 
formerly.  Still,  in  spite  of  these  circumstances,  the 
election  of  the  bishop  is  a  reality,  and  it  is  likely 
to  become  more  so.  Outside  England  in  the 
organised  provinces  of  the  Anglican  Communion, 
the  election  of  the  bishop  is  carried  out  in  one  way 
or  another  quite  according  to  old  precedents,  and 
the  bishop  is  the  chosen  pastor  of  the  diocese. 


7o  A  BISHOP'S  CONSECRATION 


The  metropolitan  must  confirm  the  election,  and 
when  that  is  done  he  makes  the  necessary  arrange- 
ments for  the  consecration,  supposing,  of  course, 
that  the  elect  is  not  already  in  episcopal  orders. 

But  there  are  dioceses  in  England  where  there  is 
no  Chapter,  and  consequently  no  election  or  con- 
firmation of  election.  In  that  case  the  Crown  sim- 
ply nominates  to  the  metropolitan.  In  missionary 
dioceses  the  practice  varies  :  in  any  case  there  is 
(except  in  India)  no  nomination  by  the  Crown. 

A  suffragan  is  appointed  on  the  initiative  of  the 
diocesan  bishop  not  by  the  nomination  of  the 
Crown.  The  bishop  sends  up  two  names  and  the 
King  chooses  from  the  two,  taking  in  almost  every 
case  the  first  name.  In  this  case  it  is  following  a 
lead  which  the  Church  has  already  given.  It  is  not 
infrequently  the  case  that  a  suffragan  bishop  is 
nominated  by  the  Crown  to  a  vacant  diocese. 
With  us  in  England  he  has  no  right  of  succession  to 
the  See,  as  is  the  case  in  America  and  elsewhere  : 
he  is  thus  available  for  a  diocese  elsewhere.  The 
Church  has  therefore  now,  through  the  system  of 
suffragans,  a  larger  share  in  the  appointment  of 
bishops  than  it  has  ever  had  among  us. 

A  few  words  will  be  sufficient  to  describe  the 
consecration  of  the  bishop.  It  takes  place  on  a 
Sunday  or  festival,  and  as  a  rule  in  the  metro- 
politan church,  or  in  England,  very  frequently  in 
one  of  the  three  great  London  churches,  the 
Cathedral  of  St.  Paul's,  the  Cathedral  of  South- 
wark,  or  Westminster  Abbey.  The  whole  con- 
secration rite  comes  together  in  one  piece,  within 


THE  APPOINTMENT  OF  CLERGY  71 


the  Liturgy,  after  the  Creed  and  the  sermon  which 
follows  the  Creed. 

Two  bishops  present  the  candidate  to  the  arch- 
bishop as  he  sits  in  his  chair  before  the  altar;  and 
after  the  legal  formalities,  the  archbishop  bids  the 
congregation  to  pray,  after  the  example  of  our 
Lord  before  His  calling  the  Apostles,  and  of  the 
Church  at  Antioch  before  the  mission  of  SS.  Paul 
and  Barnabas.  The  Litany  follows,  closing  with  a 
special  prayer  for  the  candidate.  Then  the  arch- 
bishop questions  him  as  to  his  vocation,  and  his 
belief ;  as  to  his  readiness  to  be  zealous  in  devotion, 
strict  in  discipline  over  both  himself  and  those 
entrusted  to  his  charge,  faithful  in  ordaining  others, 
and  loving  to  all  who  are  in  trouble.  The  great 
hymn,  Veni  creator  spiritus,  follows,  and  the 
consecrator's  solemn  prayer  for  the  candidate. 
Then,  as  he  kneels,  the  archbishop  and  other 
bishops  lay  their  hands  on  him,  with  the  solemn 
charge,  "  Receive  the  Holy  Ghost  for  the  office  and 
work  of  a  bishop,"  and  the  rest,  including  a  quota- 
tion from  2  Tim.  i.  6,  7,  descriptive  of  the  conse- 
cration which  St.  Paul  imparted  to  St.  Timothy. 
After  the  imposition  of  hands,  there  follows  also 
the  delivery  of  the  Bible,  with  an  exhortation 
summarizing  very  briefly  all  the  chief  duties  of  the 
episcopate.  It  remains  after  the  consecration  for 
the  bishop  to  be  enthroned  in  his  own  cathedral, 
and  so  take  up  the  burden  of  his  diocese. 

The  procedure  for  the  appointment  of  clergy  to 
cures  of  souls  is  much  less  uniform  than  this.  The 
patronage,  or  right  of  nomination  to  the  bishop 


7- 


SYSTEM  OF  PATRONAGE 


has  been,  from  the  earliest  years,  to  some  extent, 
in  lay  hands.  It  is  the  only  surviving  part  of 
much  larger  powers  which  from  the  ninth  to  the 
twelfth  century  the  noble  or  land-owner  had  over 
the  churches  that  he  or  his  forefathers  had  founded 
or  taken  under  their  protection.  Between  the  twelfth 
and  the  fifteenth  centuries  much  of  this  patronage 
came  into  the  hands  of  monasteries,  colleges  and 
other  institutions ;  and  a  good  deal  passed  thence  to 
the  Crown  at  the  suppression  of  the  monasteries  in 
the  sixteenth  century.  Some  patronage  was  kept  in 
the  hands  of  the  Crown,  some  passed  to  bishops,  to 
new  colleges  and  institutions,  to  lay  persons  and 
lay  corporations — so  that  at  present  the  patronage 
is  in  very  many  hands.  The  same  is  true  about 
modern  churches.  An  immense  number  were  built 
in  the  last  century,  and  every  year  sees  a  great 
many  more  added.  In  such  cases  the  patronage  is 
settled  according  to  the  circumstances  of  the  place. 
It  may  be  vested — for  example — in  the  bishop,  or 
in  the  rector  of  the  mother  church,  or  in  a  body 
of  trustees,  or  in  the  hands  of  an  individual :  but 
the  tendency  is  to  favour  the  entrusting  of  this 
responsibility  to  a  body  of  trustees  rather  than  to 
individual  lay  persons;  and  much  patronage  accrues 
to  the  bishop  of  the  diocese. 

In  parts  of  the  Anglican  Communion  other  than 
England,  various  systems  of  patronage  prevail. 
In  Ireland  there  is  a  general  system  of  patronage- 
boards,  consisting  of  representatives  of  the  episco- 
pate, the  diocese  and  the  particular  parish.  In 
Scotland  and  elsewhere  a  more  democratic  plan  of 


THE  CATHEDRAL  SYSTEM 


73 


selection  by  the  church  officials  is  customary  :  and 
so  on.  In  any  case,  of  course,  the  last  word  lies 
with  the  bishop,  who  alone  can  institute  to  the  cure 
of  souls. 

I  have  mentioned  once  or  twice  the  Chapter  of 
the  cathedral  church  :  and  this  leads  me  to  attempt 
a  short  account  of  the  cathedral  system  as  we  have 
it  in  England :  for  it  is  a  rather  unusual  and 
interesting  feature.  The  cathedral  Chapter  is  a 
body  of  dignified  and  elderly  clergy.  Very 
naturally  it  has  not  responded  as  quickly,  as  other 
parts  of  English  Church  organization  have,  to  the 
revivifying  movement  which,  these  last  one  hundred 
years,  has  transformed  the  whole  face  of  the 
English  Church,  and  altered  its  whole  relation  to 
the  national  life  of  the  country,  and,  in  a  sense 
even,  to  the  world.  The  cathedrals  remain  as 
survivals  of  a  mediaeval  ideal ;  but  already  a  good 
deal  lias  been  done  to  transform  them  into  an 
efficient  part  of  the  diocesan  organization,  and  more 
is  being  done  continually.  Their  history  must  be 
briefly  recalled. 

The  organization  of  the  English  Church  as  it 
was  recast  in  the  seventh  century  was  constructed 
on  lines  which  were  more  than  usually  monastic. 
In  many  dioceses  a  monastery  was  the  bishop's 
centre,  and  a  monastic  church  was  his  cathedral 
church.  At  the  great  revival  of  Benedictine  life 
in  the  tenth  century,  this  custom,  which  had 
vanished  in  the  chaos  of  the  Danish  wars,  was 
again  restored  in  some  degree.  And  a  third  time, 
when  the  Normans  came,  brimming  over  with  a 
new  monastic  enthusiasm,  the  tendency  to  establish 


74 


THE  CHAPTER 


the  diocesan  centre  in  a  monastery  was  still  further 
developed.  Consequently,  from  that  time  to  the 
sixteenth  century,  there  were  cathedrals  which  were 
served  by  monks;  and  in  those  dioceses  the 
monastic  body  formed  the  Chapter,  though  the 
bishop  was  not  by  any  means  necessarily  a  monk 
himself.  In  other  cathedrals  the  Chapter  was 
composed  of  secular  clergy — a  dean  and  other 
officers,  together  with  a  number  of  canons,  perhaps 
as  many  as  fifty  or  sixty.  Some  of  these  resided 
and  personally  carried  on  the  services.  Others 
were  absentees  who  provided  substitutes.  Thus 
there  arose  a  second  set  of  cathedral  clergy,  who 
were  deputies  of  the  absent  canons.  In  time  these 
tended  to  become  themselves  a  corporate  body  with 
rights  and  incomes  of  their  own.  There  were  also 
of  course  a  number  of  minor  officials — singers  and 
the  like — to  serve  the  church  in  many  capacities. 
In  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the  monasteries 
were  suppressed,  instead  of  the  monastic  Chapters, 
there  were  established  new  secular  Chapters  to  take 
their  place,  similar  to,  but  not  entirely  like,  the 
older  secular  Chapters. 

In  the  English  cathedrals,  therefore,  there  thus 
survived  a  medieval  ideal  of  corporate  clerical  life ; 
it  was  not  monastic,  but  it  was  bound  together  by 
the  common  property  owned  by  the  Chapter,  by 
the  services  at  the  cathedral,  in  which  all  had  their 
part,  and  by  the  close  association  of  living  in  a 
group  of  houses  lying  round  the  cathedral  and  en- 
closed from  the  town  by  a  wall. 

Reforms  in  the  early  nineteenth  century  reduced 
the  number  of  cathedral  clergy,  and  diverted  a  good 


THE  CATHEDRAL 


75 


deal  of  the  income,  which  in  some  degree  was  being 
wasted,  to  more  needy  and  more  important  parts 
of  the  work  of  the  Church.  But  the  old  organiza- 
tion still  remains.  To-day  a  cathedral  has  normally 
a  dean  and  four  or  six  canons  who  form  the  Chapter, 
a  group  of  two  to  four  other  subordinate  clergy, 
with  organist,  singers,  vergers  and  others.  These 
form  the  paid  staff.  Besides  there  are  a  number  of 
honorary  canons,  corresponding  to  the  large  body 
of  canons  of  earlier  days  :  but  they  are  not  paid, 
and  the  position  is  purely  honorific. 

The  cathedral  was  meant  to  be  a  model  church 
for  the  diocese,  and  a  centre  of  diocesan  activity. 
Tradition,  however,  had  made  them  often  the 
reverse  of  this  :  and  they  have  been  slow  to  adjust 
themselves  to  modern  conditions.  In  some,  how- 
ever, and  notably  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  London, 
a  great  deal  has  been  reformed,  and  the  ideal  is  in 
process  of  being  better  realized.  Where  men  are 
for  the  most  part  elderly  and  tradition  is  strong, 
reform  comes  slowly.  But  in  many  cases  now  the 
cathedral  posts  with  their  revenues  are  being 
utilized  as  a  sort  of  Headquarters'  Staff  for  the  work 
of  the  diocese;  and  many  activities  centre  round 
the  great  bishop's  church. 

In  dealing  in  this  lecture  with  clerical  life  in 
England,  I  have  touched  upon  some  of  its  main 
features,  but  I  have  been  obliged  to  pass  over  much 
more.  I  have  only  time  left  in  which  to  deal  with 
one  other  institution,  viz.,  the  English  Houses  of 
Convocation.  They  occupy  a  peculiar  and  a  very 
important  position. 

Synods,  both  diocesan  and  provincial,  were 


76 


GROWTH  OF  CONVOCATION 


held  from  very  early  days  in  England  at  the 
bidding  of  the  metropolitans,  or  of  bishops,  or,  at 
times,  of  papal  legates.  In  the  thirteenth  century 
the  Crown  began  to  summon  the  clergy  to  meet, 
just  as  it  summoned  the  nobility  and  burgesses  to 
meet  in  parliament.9  For  the  clerical  assembly  the 
Crown  followed  the  lines  of  the  existing  synods  and 
called  together  the  clergy  according  to  their  pro- 
vinces. A  division  was  also  made  gradually  into 
two  houses.  The  bishops  and  abbots  tended  to 
sit  separately  and  to  form  an  Upper  House,  like  the 
upper  House  of  Parliament,  consisting  of  the  great 
persons  who  were  summoned  individually.  Thus 
was  formed  also  the  Lower  House,  consisting  of 
the  lesser  dignitaries  and  the  representatives  of  the 
clergy,  and  corresponding  in  some  respects  to  the 
House  of  Commons.  In  Convocation,  however, 
this  division  is  not  constitutional,  as  in  the  Houses 
of  Parliament :  it  is  only  a  convenience.  Essen- 
tially the  two  Houses  form  one  synod,  in  which  the 
priests  appear  as  assessors  to  the  bishops. 

Thus  the  Convocations  grew  up  side  by  side  with 
Parliament  as  clerical  assemblies  summoned  at  the 
bidding  of  the  Crown.  The  king's  object  in  sum- 
moning them  was  taxation ;  and  the  clergy  pre- 
ferred to  tax  themselves  in  Convocation  rather  than 
take  their  place  and  responsibilities  together  with 
the  laity  in  Parliament.  But  the  matter  did  not  end 
there.  Meeting  thus  at  regular  intervals  concur- 
rent^ with  Parliament,  though  summoned  by  the 
metropolitans,  Convocation  became  the  natural 
place  for  doing  any  provincial  business,  and  in  fact 


RELATIONS  OF  CHURCH  AND  STATE 


77 


became  the  equivalent  of  the  already  existing  Pro- 
vincial Synod. 

At  the  Reformation,  after  the  cessation  of  the 
Pope's  jurisdiction  in  England,  and  the  consequent 
submission  of  the  clergy  only  to  the  royal  supre- 
macy, Convocation  came  to  form  part  of  a  logical  and 
balanced  constitutional  arrangement,  which  Queen 
Elizabeth  took  great  pains  to  define  and  preserve. 

It  corresponds  on  the  ecclesiastical  side  to  Parlia- 
ment :  it  passes  Canons  somewhat  as  Parliament 
passes  Acts ;  the  legislative  action  becomes  effective 
on  receiving  in  one  case  the  licence,  in  the  other,  the 
assent  of  the  Crown.  The  king  thus  stands  superior 
to  two  collateral  assemblies,  one  representing  the 
Church  and  the  other  the  State.  Matters  of  great  in- 
terest, or  matters  of  mixed  jurisdiction — partly  civil 
and  partly  ecclesiastical — may  require  the  concurrent 
action  of  both  Parliament  and  Convocation.  Others 
which  are  purely  ecclesiastical  require  only  to  be 
settled  by  Canon.  For  example,  the  Prayer  Book 
has  the  authorization  of  Convocation,  and  it  is 
further  enforced  by  an  Act  of  Parliament.  Simi- 
larly, when  a  new  law  was  recently  needed  for  the 
correction  of  criminous  clergy,  joint  action  was 
taken  by  an  Act  of  Parliament  and  by  a  Canon  of 
Convocation.  On  the  other  hand  Canons  are 
purely  ecclesiastical  acts,  and  the  English  Canons 
rest  on  the  authority  of  Convocation  and  Crown, 
not  on  that  of  Parliament.10 

The  constitutional  frontier  between  the  two 
parallel  assemblies  is  thus  theoretically  clear.  In 
practice,  owing  to  mutual  jealousies,  the  aggres- 
sions of  the  State  and  the  supineness  of  the  Church, 


78        REPRESENTATIVE  CHURCH  COUNCIL 


the  frontier  has  not  infrequently  been  violated;  and 
there  exists  a  good  deal  of  confusion  not  only  in 
the  minds  of  politicians,  lawyers,  and  other  persons, 
but  also  in  the  laws  themselves,  owing  to  the  viola- 
tion of  the  constitutional  frontier. 

The  mediaeval  constitution  of  Convocation  is  not 
adequate  for  present  needs  :  reforms  are  urgent  and 
are  imminent.  Ever  since  the  great  church  revival 
Convocation  has  become  a  body  of  great  impor- 
tance ;  and  its  power  and  influence  will  be  greater 
still  when  it  is  made  more  fully  representative  of 
the  whole  Church. 

A  step  in  this  direction  was  taken  in  1885  by  the 
appointment  of  a  Representative  House  of  Laymen 
in  each  province  to  co-operate  with  the  Convoca- 
tions. These  Houses  of  Laymen  have  no  consti- 
tutional position,  but  they  are  practically  of  great 
importance.  The  four  Houses  of  Convocation 
sitting  with  the  two  Houses  of  Laymen,  and  pre- 
sided over  jointly  by  the  two  English  metropolitans, 
form  what  is  known  as  the  Representative  Church 
Council.  This  has  no  place  formally  in  the  Eng- 
lish constitution;  it  is  purely  a  church  assembly 
and  of  recent  origin.  But  it  tends  every  year  to 
become  of  more  and  more  importance ;  and  it  is 
justifying  on  purely  voluntary  lines  its  title  of  the 
Representative  Church  Council. 

Meanwhile  Convocation  remains  as  the  Constitu- 
tional Synod  of  each  province,  with  powers  legisla- 
tive, judicial  and  administrative,  not  subject  to 
Parliament  but  depending  upon  the  Crown  for 
its  ecclesiastical,  as  distinct  from  its  spiritual, 
authority. 


LECTURE  IV. 

The  recovery  of  the  religious  or  monastic  life  in 
England  has  come  about  more  slowly  than  other 
pieces  of  recovery  since  the  sixteenth  century.11 
That  is  naturally  the  case,  for  many  reasons. 
Monasticism  is  always  a  slow  growth,  as  the  history 
of  its  original  establishment  in  the  fourth  century 
shows.  Also  in  England  in  1533-5  tne  severe  knife 
of  the  surgeon  cut  deeply  into  this  portion  of  the 
Church,  removing  practically  the  whole  of  the 
organ  of  community  life,  because  of  the  disease 
that  had  laid  hold  of  some  parts  of  it.  The  seven- 
teenth century  witnessed  several  attempts  to  restore 
the  religious  life  :  but  none  had  any  lasting  success. 
No  such  attempt  was  to  be  expected  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  for  that  was  a  time  of  great  spiritual  weak- 
ness, and  even  deadness,  throughout  Western 
Europe;  and  in  England,  in  particular,  the  Church 
was  systematically  being  repressed  and  weakened 
by  the  State.  Early  in  the  nineteenth  century  came 
the  day  of  revivals.  First  came  the  rebellion 
against  the  indifference  and  latitudinarianism  of 
the  previous  century,  which  was  successfully  carried 
through  by  the  Evangelicals.  In  consequence  of 
this  movement  religion  became  again  a  great 
reality  ;  it  laid  hold  afresh  of  the  rich  and  influential, 
as  well  as  of  the  poor.  It  laid  the  foundations  of 
a  deep  piety,  a  whole-hearted  consecration  to  God, 
79 

G 


So 


REVIVED  VITALITY 


a  personal  striving  after  holiness,  and  a  new 
enthusiasm  for  works  of  mercy,  evangelization,  and 
reform.  The  prophet  prophesied ;  and,  as  of  old, 
bone  came  to  bone,  and  flesh  to  flesh,  in  the  valley 
which  had  previously  seemed  to  be  only  an  abode 
of  death. 

This  was  great,  but  incomplete.  Again  the  voice 
of  prophecy  was  heard,  as  the  Catholic  revival 
followed  upon  the  Evangelical  revival,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  carried  further  His  work.  Just  as  the 
Evangelical  movement  had  revived  prayer,  the 
Catholic  movement  requickened  the  sacramental 
life.  As  the  former  had  taught  individual  and 
personal  holiness,  the  latter  re-emphasized  the 
holiness  of  the  Church  and  the  sacred  obligations 
of  membership  in  it.  As  the  former  had  restored 
domestic  religion,  the  latter  reopened  for  daily  use 
churches  that  had  been  closed  from  Sunday  to 
Sunday,  and  recommenced  in  them  the  neglected 
daily  services.  As  the  former  had  glorified  a  living 
personal  faith  and  the  simple  biblical  belief,  so  the 
latter,  following  on  the  lines  of  the  Fathers,  and 
largely  through  recourse  to  them,  exhibited  the 
developed  teaching  and  the  expository  tradition  of 
the  Church  to  a  new  generation,  that  desired  to 
know  not  only  what  to  believe,  but  also  why. 

Thus  the  Evangelical  Revival  and  the  Catholic 
Revival  in  the  nineteenth  century  followed  one 
another,  supplemented  one  another,  and  have  given 
us  a  revived  vitality.  It  was  very  characteristic 
that  this  great  double  reviving  should  come  to  us, 
as  it  did,  along  the  lines  of  the  two  parties  which 


CATHOLIC  EVANGELICALISM 


81 


had  so  long  been,  not  rivals,  but  co-operators  in 
the  destiny  of  the  English  Church.  As  the  Blessed 
Spirit  breathed  upon  Evangelicals — or  the  "  Low 
Church  party  " — to  use  the  well-known  but  rather 
offensive  nickname — they  rose  up  to  contribute  an 
element  that  was  indispensable  to  the  future.  An 
equally  indispensable  element  was  contributed, 
when  the  catholic-minded,  or  "  High  Churchmen," 
who  had  been,  for  some  time  previously,  the  stiff, 
and  rather  wooden,  maintainers  of  an  old  tradition, 
themselves  caught  the  inspiration  in  their  turn ;  and 
brought  out  afresh  from  the  treasury  of  God  all  the 
old  catholic  faith  and  discipline  and  practice,  and 
commended  it  afresh  to  the  English  nation. 

The  English  church  life  in  its  vigour  of  to-day 
is  the  result  of  the  quickening,  which  came  mainly 
from  these  two  movements ;  though  there  were  also 
many  subsidiary  forces  that  entered  into  co-opera- 
tion as  well.  The  result  may  be  described  as  a 
"  Catholic  Evangelicalism  "  ;  for  everywhere  in  the 
best  activities  among  us  now,  a  blending  of  these 
two  forces  is  noticeable.  Consequently  there  is 
now  a  unity  about  English  church  life,  greater  than 
there  has  been  for  four  centuries  at  least ;  and  it  is 
becoming  greater  still  year  by  year.  I  do  not  say 
that  the  parties  have  ceased  to  exist.  I  cannot  say 
that  we  have,  or  desire  to  have,  that  monotonous 
uniformity,  which  the  Latin  mind  is  apt  to  mistake 
for  unity.  We  would  rather  have  the  unity  of  a 
body  of  patriots,  than  the  uniformity  of  a  regiment 
of  soldiers.  But  I  do  say  that  even  the  extreme 
wings  of  church  parties  have  for  the  most  part 


82 


THE  MONASTIC  IDEAL 


ceased  to  be  rivals,  and  have  become  devoted 
partners,  each  bringing  its  own  contribution  to  the 
common  task  of  making  up  our  many  deficiencies. 

These  are  the  circumstances  in  which  the  revival 
of  the  monastic  life  has,  in  God's  great  mercy, 
become  possible  for  us.  In  many  ways  it  would 
be  true  to  state,  that  the  Evangelical  movement 
gave  the  spirit,  and  the  Catholic  movement  the 
form,  for  this  revival.  This  statement  might  easily 
be  exemplified,  either  from  the  early  days  of  that 
revival ;  or,  again,  from  the  present  position  of  our 
community  life.  In  our  own  Community,  for 
example,  there  are  Fathers  whose  antecedents  are 
entirely  Evangelical,  side  by  side  with  those  of  High 
Church  antecedents ;  while  not  a  small  proportion 
have  come  to  the  Community  out  of  Nonconformity. 

But  before  I  go  on  further  to  speak  of  community 
life  in  England  in  detail,  I  must  remind  you  of  the 
different  development  of  the  monastic  ideal  that  has 
gone  on  in  the  West,  as  compared  with  the  East.11 

The  early  Western  monasticism  was  organised 
in  that  Eastern  form,  of  which  St.  Athanasius 
brought  us  knowledge  from  Egypt,  when  he  came 
an  exile  to  the  West.  Again,  it  was  the  same 
form  as  Cassian  learnt  in  the  East  and  established 
in  Gaul.  But  Western  monasticism  did  not  remain 
in  this  form.  St.  Benedict  in  Italy  developed 
further  the  conception  of  corporate  life,  out  of  the 
beginnings  made  by  Pachomius  and  Schenoudi  in 
Egypt.  More  or  less  independently  of  him 
Caesarius  in  Southern  Gaul  did  the  same.  A  new 
type   then  confronted   the  older   and  traditional 


THE  RULE  OF  BENEDICT  S3 

forms;  and  for  a  time  it  was  not  clear  which  of  the 
two  would  predominate.  A  sign  of  the  ultimate 
result  was  seen,  when  St.  Gregory  the  Great,  of 
Rome,  adopted  the  Benedictine  ideal.  Thencefor- 
ward the  career  of  Benedictinism  in  the  West  was 
one  of  victory.  For  a  time  the  two  ideals  went  on 
side  by  side.  In  the  evangelization  of  Central 
Europe  St.  Columban  and  his  monks  represented 
the  old,  just  as  St.  Boniface  represented  the  newer. 
In  England,  too,  both  forms  of  monasticism  were 
prominent :  for  the  Celtic  monasticism  was  of  the 
old  type,  while  the  Roman  missionaries  had  at  their 
back  the  Benedictine  training.  But  everywhere  it 
was  the  latter  that  survived,  and  became  most 
effective.  It  is  difficult  to  describe  in  a  few  words 
the  difference  between  these  two  forms  :  but  I  will 
indicate  two  points  which  are  illuminating. 

1 .  St.  Benedict  designed  his  rule  to  be  a  moderate 
rule,  so  far  as  asceticism  went  :  he  wished  to  dis- 
courage that  competition  and  rivalry  in  fasting  and 
disciplinary  hardships,  which  he  found  was  under- 
mining the  sound  foundations  of  the  monastic  life. 

2.  But  if  he  seemed  to  incline  to  mildness  in  that 
respect  he  pulled  up  the  level  of  strictness  in  all  that 
concerned  the  corporate  side  of  life.  The  Benedic- 
tine monk  was  always  to  be  in  community,  never 
alone.  He  ate,  slept,  worked,  and  worshipped  with 
the  convent.  He  was  to  be  a  member,  not  an  in- 
dividual. Besides,  the  rule  as  to  property  was  far- 
reaching.  He  had  nothing  of  his  own,  but  all  was 
in  common.  Thus  the  individualism,  which  re- 
mained over  from  the  hermit  life  in  the  other  forms 


84 


IDEALS  OF  THE  ORDERS 


of  monasticism,  was  rigidly  excluded  by  the  Bene- 
dictine system.  So  Western  ideals  of  monasticism 
came  to  differ  from  Eastern,  in  a  systematic  way, 
as  early  as  the  fifth  century. 

But,  further,  the  West  has  developed  the  life 
of  religion  in  other  forms  than  those  of  the 
monk  or  the  hermit.  There  came  in  the  thirteenth 
century  the  movement  that  led  to  the  founding  of 
the  Orders  of  Friars ;  and  this  had  an  effect  on  the 
religious  ideals  of  the  West,  which  was  no  smaller 
than  that  of  monasticism.  Here  we  encounter  a 
very  different  form  of  dedicated  life,  and  one  which 
is  not  so  familiar  to  the  East.  The  Friar  is  dedi- 
cated to  a  life  in  the  w  orld  :  he  does  not  go  apart ; 
he  goes  into  the  thick  of  the  hot  and  bustling 
activities  of  men,  especially  in  cities,  in  order  to  win 
them  for  God.  Not  separation  and  calm,  but 
activity  and  accessibility,  are  his  ideals.  And  thus 
they  have  become  the  guiding  principles  of  a  new 
and  different  form  of  religious  life. 

Two  other  developments  must  also  be  noted  that 
have  powerfully  influenced  religious  orders  in  the 
West. 

First  there  are  the  ideals  of  the  Jesuit  Order, 
which  is  military  in  character,  individualistic  in 
working,  and  offers  itself  to  be  the  advance  guard 
of  the  Church  militant,  in  whatever  directions  the 
papacy  may  send  it. 

Secondly,  there  are  the  ideals  of  the  later  Orders, 
especially  those  of  French  origin.  In  them  less 
stress  is  laid  on  vows  than  on  a  permanent  ad- 
herence to  the  Order.    In  many  of  them  clerical 


FOUR  ENGLISH  ORDERS 


85 


ideals  very  largely  shape  and  colour  the  monastic 
ideals.  In  all  of  them  work  takes  a  prominent 
place,  and  often  in  a  highly  organized  form,  e.g., 
in  education,  or  in  missions  to  the  heathen. 

The  traditions,  which  we  have  had  before  us  in 
reviving  the  religious  life  in  England,  are  thus  very 
rich  and  varied.  What  I  have  said  so  far  about 
them,  applies  first  and  foremost  to  men,  but  parallel 
developments  for  communities  of  women  have  in 
most  cases  come  about;  and,  indeed,  especially  in 
French  convents,  the  varieties  of  type,  which  have 
been  before  us,  are  still  greater  among  women  than 
among  men. 

Thus  it  comes  to  pass  that,  during  these  last 
seventy  years,  the  recovery  in  the  English  Church 
of  monastic  and  religious  orders  has  taken  very 
varying  forms  :  for  the  works  of  God  are  very  mani- 
fold. Of  pure  Benedictinism  there  has  never  been 
much ;  and  misfortunes  have  pursued  the  chief  at- 
tempts that  have  been  made  by  men  in  that  line  so 
far.  Of  Friars  we  have  no  exact  example,  though 
the  Society  of  the  Divine  Compassion  at  Plaistow 
is  in  many  ways  very  Franciscan  in  its  ideals.  The 
Society  of  the  Sacred  Mission  at  Kelham  has  a 
good  deal  in  common,  as  its  name  might  suggest, 
with  the  great  foundation  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul. 
But,  in  fact,  none  of  our  larger  orders  for  men 
follows  at  all  closely  any  one  form  of  earlier  days. 

For  while  the  principles  of  the  religious  life  re- 
main always  and  everywhere  the  same,  the  applica- 
tion of  those  principles  in  current  life  must 
naturally  vary  with  different  circumstances.    For  a 


86 


SISTERHOODS 


long  time  the  Society  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist  at 
Cowley  was  practically  the  only  form  of  such  life 
available  among  us  for  men  in  England.  But  there 
seemed  a  need  for  other  societies  as  well,  in  which 
the  main  principles  would  be  the  same,  but  the 
application  of  them  would  be  in  some  ways  dif- 
ferent. So  there  arose  the  two  other  societies  which 
I  have  just  mentioned,  and  also  the  Community  of 
the  Resurrection,  of  which  I  am  a  member.  All 
these  four  are,  in  varying  degree,  active  communi- 
ties; that  is,  they  have  a  good  deal  of  the  ideal 
of  the  friar  blended  with  that  of  the  monk.  In 
most  of  them  the  priests  outnumber  the  laymen. 
In  our  Mirfield  Community  there  are  none  but 
priests. 

You  would  notice  considerable  variety  of  prac- 
tice in  our  different  orders,  but  much  unity  of 
idea.  All  have  a  strong  corporate  life,  and 
common  offices  at  the  seven  hours  of  prayer  in  the 
day.  The  works  undertaken  are  evangelistic,  edu- 
cational, and  pastoral,  besides  special  missionary 
activities  among  the  heathen  in  India,  Africa,  and 
China. 

The  sisterhoods  are  older,  more  numerous,  and 
in  every  way  larger  :  and,  further,  they  present  an 
even  more  varied  appearance.  Some  of  them  have 
drawn  much  from  the  example  of  modern  French 
Orders:  one  or  two  are  Benedictine  in  character; 
some  have  adopted  the  Franciscan  standard  of 
poverty  :  but  for  the  most  part  their  immediate 
models  are  those  of  the  seventeenth  to  nineteenth 
centuries  abroad.    Some  few  are  contemplative  and 


AN  ORDER  OF  PENITENTS  87 


enclosed  :  the  greater  number  are  active  communi- 
ties, though  in  some  of  these  there  will  be  sisters 
whose  main  activity  is,  not  that  of  works,  but  that 
of  prayer  and  meditation.  In  most  of  them  there 
is  a  considerable  blending  of  classes,  the  well-to-do 
and  the  poorer  each  contributing  some  sisters  to  the 
community.  Sometimes  within  the  community 
there  is  a  division  made,  according  to  antecedents 
or  education,  between  one  sort  of  sisters  and 
another  :  but  sometimes  there  is  no  such  division. 
In  the  larger  sisterhoods  all  the  different  faculties 
or  disqualifications  can  be  utilized  or  allowed  for, 
as  the  range  of  work  which  is  undertaken  is  a  wide 
one.  In  the  smaller  sisterhoods  this  is  less  the  case, 
and  some  are  more  specialized.  There  is  one,  for 
example,  which  is  almost  wholly  occupied  with  the 
higher  education  of  girls  and  women ;  and  there  is 
another  which  lives  entirely  on  what  it  can  beg  and 
spends  its  time  in  nursing  the  poor. 

Another  very  beautiful  outcome  of  the  revival  of 
the  religious  life  is  an  Order  of  Penitents,  in  which 
some  of  those,  who  have  been  reclaimed  from  a  life 
of  sin,  find  a  vocation  and  a  lifelong  dedication  to 
holiness. 

I  will  not  speak  of  the  manifold  activities  that 
come  out  as  the  results  of  such  a  life  of  dedication 
as  is  found  in  our  sisterhoods.  The  practical  works 
of  love  and  mercy,  of  evangelization,  rescue  and 
protection,  are  countless.  They  are  the  fruits  of 
the  tree  which  God  has  blessed.  But  the  tree  itself 
which  bears  these  fruits  is  more  excellent  still. 
For  the  religious  life  itself  recalls  that  Tree  of  Life 


ss 


PAROCHIAL  MISSIONS 


in  the  Paradise  of  God,  planted  hard  by  the  waters 
of  the  River  of  Life,  which  bears  its  fruit  every 
month,  and  whose  leaves  serve  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations.  It  is  a  gift  of  God,  for  the  recovery  of 
which  we  cannot  be  too  thankful.  May  God  pre- 
serve it  for  us  in  all  purity,  effectiveness  and 
holiness. 

I  must  carry  you  on  now  to  some  two  other  insti- 
tutions of  our  English  Churchlife,  which,  by  their 
spiritual  power,  have  been  and  are  great  forces  in 
its  recovery  and  progress.  Three  specially  deserve 
our  consideration  :  Parochial  Missions,  Conven- 
tions and  Retreats. 

Parochial  missions,  during  these  last  fifty  years 
and  more,  have  had  a  very  great  value  in  recovering 
the  careless  and  the  alienated,  and  in  quickening 
the  vitality  of  the  faithful  flock  in  the  parish.  This 
work  has  been  one  of  the  principal  occupations  of 
our  community  for  these  twenty  years :  so  I  must 
try  and  describe  a  typical  mission,  in  order  to  show 
what  is  done,  and  wherein  lies  its  value. 

Nothing  is  harder  than  to  give  a  general  de- 
scription of  a  mission ;  for  the  more  one  sees  of 
missions,  the  more  one  realizes  that  no  two  missions 
are  alike.  Still,  certain  methods  and  plans  are 
generally  employed;  and  those  at  any  rate  I  can  try 
to  describe. 

First,  what  is  its  object  ?  A  mission  is  an  excep- 
tional effort  to  win  back  to  God  the  careless  and 
sinful  people  of  a  parish ;  and,  incidentally  as  well, 
to  quicken  the  spiritual  life  of  those  who  are  already 
living   in  grace.    It   is    therefore  an  occasional 


PLANS  OF  THE  MISSION 


89 


supplement  to  the  ordinary  parochial  work.  When 
the  rector  sees  his  people  ready  for  such  a  forward 
move,  and  ascertains  in  consultation  with  them  that 
the  moment  has  come  for  a  special  effort,  he  invokes 
the  counsel  and  help  of  some  priest  skilled  in  this 
work,  inviting  him  to  come  and  deliberate  further 
with  him  and  his  people  as  to  the  advisability  of 
such  a  step.  Meanwhile  the  parish  prays  for  God's 
guidance  in  the  matter.  Then  the  visit  of  the 
missioner  comes,  and  he  has  the  opportunity  of  in- 
vestigating and  consulting  with  individuals  on  the 
spot,  as  well  as  preaching  in  church  and  discussing 
in  public  with  the  people  as  a  whole. 

If,  as  the  result  of  this  preliminary  visit,  it  is 
decided  to  embark  upon  the  mission,  detailed  plans 
for  it  at  once  begin  to  be  laid.  Probably  a  suitable 
date  has  already  been  fixed  provisionally  :  and  there 
are  still  some  six  months  or  more  to  run  before  the 
time  comes.  Probably,  also,  the  parish  has  already 
for  some  time  been  looking  forward,  interceding, 
and  preparing  :  but  from  this  point  forward  the  pre- 
parations become  more  definite  and  wide.  The 
people  undertake  a  special  visitation  of  the  whole 
area.  Some  one  is  sent  to  every  family  weekly,  for 
a  month  or  more,  before  the  mission,  to  carry  an 
invitation,  to  make  the  coming  mission  known,  to 
get  the  people  to  pray  for  God's  blessing  upon  it, 
and  so  forth.  Probably  also  there  are  special 
services  of  intercession  in  church  and  elsewhere  : 
and  there  is  some  fresh  music  of  a  suitable  and 
popular  kind,  which  is  to  be  learnt  with  a  view  to 
its  being  used  at  the  mission.    The  men  and  women 


go 


BEGINNING  THE  WORK 


of  the  parish,  as  they  go  from  house  to  house,  carry 
with  them  some  tracts,  or  paper,  or  letter,  which 
they  can  leave  everywhere  for  the  family  to  read  at 
leisure.  Usually  the  clergy  of  the  parish  issue  a 
letter  of  explanation  and  invitation ;  the  bishop  also 
sends  a  word  of  commendation ;  and  the  missioner, 
who  is  coming  with  his  assistants  for  the  mission, 
issues  a  third  letter,  all  of  these  being  distributed 
thus  from  house  to  house.  Many  preparations 
also  are  required  for  some  of  the  methods  that  will 
be  used  at  the  mission.  Employers  are  visited,  to 
ask  them  to  give  special  facilities  to  their  employees 
to  come,  or  to  give  an  opportunity  for  services  in 
their  factories  and  works.  The  necessary  pre- 
liminaries for  outdoor  services  and  street  proces- 
sions are  arranged,  and  so  forth.  A  very  busy 
month,  or  more,  is  spent  over  the  final  work  of  pre- 
paration. Hopes  and  expectations  are  raised  high  : 
prayer  becomes  more  urgent ;  and  the  work  of  the 
people  in  this  crusade  of  evangelization  becomes, 
bit  by  bit,  more  skilled  and  more  intense. 

At  last  the  long-expected  day  arrives  for  the  be- 
ginning of  the  mission  itself.  The  bishop  comes, 
if  possible,  to  give  his  blessing  to  the  missionars, 
and  the  work.  If  the  mission  goes  on  simul- 
taneously in  a  number  of  parishes  in  one  place, 
many  missioners  and  clergy  will  gather  together  for 
the  bishop's  blessing  in  the  principal  church  of  the 
place;  and  thence  disperse  to  their  various  spheres. 
This  opening  service  is  usually  on  a  Saturday,  so 
that  the  mission  may  begin  with  the  Sunday-  The 
preceding  days  of  the  week,  or  some  of  them,  are 


OPEN  AIR  PREACHING 


9i 


often  observed  as  days  of  continuous  intercession ; 
and  it  is  arranged  that  some  one,  or  a  number  of 
people,  shall  always  be  keeping  up  the  chain  of 
prayer  from  early  morning  till  late  at  night. 

On  the  Saturday  night  the  missioner  meets  at 
the  opening  service  in  the  church,  the  inner  circle 
of  people  who  have  been  most  zealous  in  the  pre- 
paration, and  can  be  relied  upon  to  co-operate  all 
through.  He  reviews  his  forces  and  the  plan  of 
campaign  in  his  opening  sermon  on  that  evening. 
It  is  the  eve  of  the  battle.  On  Sunday  is  a  general 
communion  of  all  those  who  have  undertaken  to 
bear  the  brunt  of  the  campaign ;  and  with  that  the 
mission  proper  begins.  It  is  not  possible  to  say 
how  long  it  will  last;  the  length  of  time  depends 
upon  circumstances :  but  the  parish  may  reckon 
that  it  has  before  it  at  least  twelve  days  or  a  fort- 
night, or  more,  of  concentrated  spiritual  effort. 

The  mission  relies  upon  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit;  and  upon  His  working  through  two  chief 
agencies,  namely,  prayer  and  preaching.  It  pro- 
bably attempts  in  some  degree  to  reach  all  sorts  of 
people  :  therefore  side  by  side  with  the  general  ser- 
vices, there  will  usually  be  others  for  special  groups 
— for  men,  for  women,  for  children,  and  so  on.  In 
many  parishes  outdoor  preaching  will  be  of  great 
value.  Perhaps  it  will  merely  take  the  form  of 
giving  an  invitation  to  the  church  services;  but  per- 
haps also,  if  the  weather  is  fine  and  the  parish  is 
an  industrial  one,  a  substantial  service  will  be  held 
in  the  open  air,  and  preaching  on  this  scale  may 
become  of  great  importance.    Many  people  will  at 


92  THE  OUTDOOR  PROCESSION 


times  stay  and  listen  in  the  street,  who  have  lost 
the  habit  of  entering  any  church  :  and  so  they  will 
be  drawn  in.  It  is  possible  that  objections  may  be 
raised  by  people  standing  round,  though  as  a  rule 
such  services  are  treated  with  great  respect  even 
in  the  roughest  of  places.  Then  the  objections  may 
give  the  preacher  a  very  valuable  opportunity  of 
pressing  home  his  point,  and  even  of  winning  over 
the  objector.  These  outdoor  gatherings  are  chiefly 
at  night,  but  in  some  places  the  dinner  hour  in  the 
middle  of  the  day  is  also  very  valuable  for  speaking 
in  the  streets  or  else  in  the  factories.  Sometimes 
there  is  only  a  chance  of  speaking  to  people  in  the 
works  individually,  but  at  other  times  there  may  be 
a  short  general  service  for  any  of  the  work  people  to 
attend,  where  the  authorities  are  friendly,  and  give 
facilities  for  this. 

Another  method  of  awakening  interest,  and  also 
of  drawing  the  careless  to  church,  is  the  outdoor 
procession.  This  is  most  valuable,  and  especially 
so  if  it  is  a  real  witnessing  on  the  part  of  some  hun- 
dreds of  the  most  important  people  of  the  parish, 
and  not  merely  a  procession  of  clergy  and  choir. 
In  richer  parishes  neither  processions  nor  outdoor 
preaching  are  of  much  value.  Accordingly  the  hour 
before  the  evening  service  is  the  opportunity  for 
visiting,  as  systematically  as  possible,  those  who 
are  alienated,  but  who  show  signs  of  a  disposition 
to  amend. 

But  it  is  time  now  to  describe  the  work  that  goes 
on  inside  the  church.  The  chief  missioner  is  re- 
sponsible for  all  the  conduct  of  the  mission ;  but  he 


MLSSION  vSERVICES 


93 


probably  has  assistants  with  him  to  do  the  outdoor 
work  and  some  of  the  sectional  services,  while  he 
himself  undertakes  the  principal  work  in  the  church 
itself.  Each  day  begins  with  one  or  more  celebra- 
tions of  Holy  Communion,  so  that  the  blessing  of 
God  may  be  invoked  upon  the  work  of  the  day. 
Some  of  these  services  will  have  to  be  very  early 
— it  may  be  at  5  a.m.,  or  even  earlier  still,  for  the 
benefit  of  those  who  go  early  to  work.  An  oppor- 
tunity is  given,  as  far  as  possible,  for  all  to  join  in 
this  intercession ;  and  those  who  cannot  be  present 
in  the  church  are  invited  to  join  privately  with  the 
church's  prayer,  wherever  they  may  happen  to  be. 
Thus  the  greatest  stress  is  laid  upon  the  united 
prayer.  Very  likely  also  at  other  times  of  the  day 
there  will  be  a  quiet  intercession  service  of  a  very 
simple  sort,  at  which  people  present  their  special 
petitions ;  and  the  individual  needs,  as  well  as 
general  ones,  are  prayed  for.  Prayer  will  again 
form  a  great  feature  of  the  evening  service;  and 
very  often,  after  the  preaching  is  over  at  night,  the 
day  will  end,  as  it  began,  with  great  efforts  of 
prayer. 

The  missioner's  chief  preaching  opportunity  is 
at  night.  On  Sunday  evening  he  begins  his 
prophetic  work  in  the  spirit  of  St.  John  the 
Baptist,  proclaiming  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  and 
pointing  to  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the 
sin  of  the  world.  His  mission  sermons  all  through 
the  early  part  of  the  mission  are  in  one  or  other 
form,  a  call  to  repentance  and  conversion.  Begin- 
ning with  the  Love  of  God,  he  next  sets  forth  the 


94 


THE  EVENING  PREACHING 


sin  of  man,  then  the  saving  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  Parables,  miracles,  and  scenes  from  the 
Gospel,  the  Passion  and  Death  of  our  Lord,  His 
Resurrection,  Ascension  and  return  as  Judge — all 
these  are  his  subjects.  As  the  Holy  Spirit  takes 
the  preacher's  message  and  enkindles  through  it  the 
souls  of  the  hearers,  they  are  brought  by  one  road 
after  another  into  living  touch  with  their  Master; 
so  that  He  can  do  His  work  for  them — recovering, 
healing,  encouraging,  pardoning,  sanctifying — 
according  to  the  opportunity  and  their  own  need. 

The  trained  and  skilled  missioner,  as  a  rule, 
divides  his  evening  preaching  into  two  parts.  One 
is  meant  to  appeal  more  to  the  head,  by  instruction ; 
the  other  to  the  heart  by  exhortation ;  but  both  are 
intended  to  move  the  will  of  the  hearer  that  he  may 
make  a  definite  advance  in  the  road  of  salvation. 
The  order  of  these  two  parts  will  probably  vary. 
Some  congregations  dislike  teaching,  but  like  exhor- 
tation. For  them  the  exhortation  had  better  precede 
the  instruction.  Others  take  the  opposite  view;  and 
the  reverse  procedure  is  best  for  them.  I  neither  case 
the  preaching  will  take  up  the  greater  part  of  the 
evening  service.  In  other  respects  also  the  service 
will  vary  greatly  in  order  and  in  contents.  There 
will  probably  be  some  reading  of  Scripture;  some 
singing  of  hymns,  bearing  on  the  preacher's  sub- 
ject, or  otherwise  calculated  to  help  forward  the  im- 
pression that  is  to  be  made  :  notices  will  be  given  of 
services,  and  some  explanations  of  what  is  being 
done  or  is  contemplated.  Perhaps  some  time  may 
be  given  to  answering  questions,  which  are  sent  in 


REPENTANCE 


95 


to  the  missioner  beforehand  in  writing.  In  any  case 
there  will  be  devotional  exercises  in  one  form  or 
another,  and  probably  some  silence  for  private  and 
individual  prayer. 

The  whole  evening  service  lasts  less  than  one 
and  a  half  hour  as  a  rule,  and  probably  there  is  an 
opportunity  before  the  end  when  people  who  wish 
can  go  out.  For  it  is  not  our  custom  in  England, 
as  it  is  abroad,  for  people  to  go  in  and  out  of 
church  while  the  service  is  going  on.  Unless  there 
is  exceptional  reason  to  the  contrary,  people  are  ex- 
pected to  be  there  when  the  service  begins,  and  to 
stay  attentively  to  the  end.  But  this  general  rule 
is  relaxed  at  mission  services  like  these.  They 
cannot  be  regarded  like  the  usual  services ;  they  are 
exceptional,  inasmuch  as  they  go  on  at  some  length, 
on  week  nights,  and  for  many  days  continuously. 
So  some  persons  perhaps  may  leave  when  the  op- 
portunity is  given.  On  the  other  hand,  some  will 
stay  on,  when  the  main  service  is  over,  because  they 
are  moved  by  what  has  been  said,  and  wish  to  re- 
main for  further  prayers.  Thus  the  main  service 
will  often  be  followed  by  a  smaller  "after-meeting," 
which  is  a  great  occasion  for  the  strong  workings 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  When  all  is  finished  some  will 
stay  behind  to  get  personal  help  from  the  mis- 
sioners,  the  parochial  clergy,  or  other  experienced 
helpers. 

The  preaching  and  teaching  of  repentance  will 
occupy  all  the  early  part  of  the  mission ;  and 
penitence  may  be  for  a  long  time  its  main 
message,    especially    if   fresh    people   are  being 


96 


RENEWAL  OF  VOWS 


brought  in  night  by  night,  who  have  to  be  won 
over  to  a  new  life.  Repentance  must  not  only  be 
talked  about  and  explained ;  still  more  it  is  neces- 
sary that  it  should  be  practised.  The  missioner 
must  secure  that  there  is  a  real  searching  of  con- 
science, a  true  contrition,  and  a  hearty  confession  to 
God.  Some  will  need  sacramental  absolution  be- 
fore they  can  really  begin  afresh,  and  they  must  be 
brought  to  seek  it,  and  to  make  a  good  confession. 

Sometimes  it  is  found  valuable  to  encourage 
people  to  lay  public  claim  afresh  to  that  position  of 
Christian  privilege,  which  as  baptized  persons  they 
already  hold,  by  making  a  renewal  of  their 
baptismal  vows.  With  us  these  vows  are  three  :  for 
we  have  not  only  (like  yourselves)  the  renunciation 
of  Satan,  and  the  profession  of  Christian  faith ;  but 
also  the  promise  to  keep  God's  Holy  Will  and  Com- 
mandments. It  is  a  solemn  stage  in  the  mission 
when  those  who  are  so  minded  are  called  up  by 
the  missioner  to  the  altar,  and  there,  before  God  and 
the  congregation,  renew  these  solemn  obligations 
which  lie  at  the  very  foundation  of  their  Christian 
life.  Those  who  can  begin  by  going  so  far  as  this, 
will  go  yet  further  in  response  to  the  call  for  God, 
before  the  mission  is  done. 

For  the  scope  of  the  mission  does  not  end  with 
the  renewal  of  old  promises,  or  the  work  of  repen- 
tance. It  is  necessary  that  everyone  should  be 
started,  in  some  way  or  another,  in  a  new  life. 
Those  who  have  all  along  been  devout,  soon  find 
that  a  great  new  prospect  is  being  held  out  to  them  ; 
and  they  are  eager  to  advance.    Those  who  have 


THE  END  IN  THANKSGIVING 


97 


been  careless  or  godless,  whose  hearts  God  has  now 
newly  touched  and  reclaimed,  will  be  zealous  to 
enter  on  the  new  road  of  grace,  peace  and  joy,  that 
they  see  stretching  out  before  them.  The  most 
backward  people  will  probably  prove  to  be  those, 
who  have  been  hitherto  neither  one  thing  nor  the 
other;  and  who  do  not  see  why  they  should  not 
continue  in  their  indefinite  condition.  But  they, 
too,  must  be  brought  to  "  walk  in  newness  of  life." 

So  the  third  principal  feature  of  the  mission  will 
be  the  resolutions  of  amendment.  These  are 
written  down  and  brought  to  the  clergy  for  their 
signature  and  blessing.  Often  a  cross  is  then 
given  to  those  who  come,  which  they  wear  con- 
spicuously during  the  mission  (and  often  later  too) 
as  a  reminder  to  themselves  and  as  an  encourage- 
ment to  others. 

The  days  fly  by  very  fast,  and  as  the  mission 
works  through  its  course  its  note  changes.  Peni- 
tent souls  rise  up  forgiven,  and  joy  takes  the  place 
of  sorrow.  Some  who  have  found  the  Peace  of  God 
for  themselves,  go  forth  eagerly  to  bring  others  also 
to  find  the  same  pearl  of  great  price.  Those  who 
have  begun  their  new  life,  are  thirsting  to  drink  in 
the  spiritual  teaching  for  which  before  they  had  no 
capacity  or  taste.  Consequently  the  devotions  turn 
to  a  great  extent  into  thanksgiving.  The  sermons 
and  instructions  also  change  in  their  nature ;  exhor- 
tation and  warning  give  place  to  encouragement 
and  enlightenment.  And  so  the  end  is  reached  : 
and  in  a  mission  faithfully  undertaken  and  carried 
through  under  the  miracle-working  power  of  God's 


98  MISSIONS  AT  THE  UNIVERSITIES 


grace,  there  is  at  the  close  a  great  chorus  of  praise, 
which  finds  its  expression  in  the  final  Eucharists, 
and  echoes  on  for  many  years  to  come. 

Individual  parishes,  and  whole  towns  as  well, 
have  been  greatly  inspired  by  missions  such  as  I 
describe.  The  work  is  easier  in  a  parish  which  has 
a  mixed  population,  or  a  poor  population,  than  in 
one  that  consists  in  the  main  of  wealthy  people.  But 
in  these,  too,  some  such  efforts  have  proved  of  great 
value.  Quite  recently  the  power  of  missions  has 
been  proved  also  at  the  universities.  Last  year  I 
was  privileged  to  take  part  in  a  mission  at  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  which  was  a  very  remark- 
able instance  of  spiritual  movement  and  power. 
Also  since  I  have  been  in  this  country  I  have  re- 
ceived news  about  the  similar  mission,  held  in  the 
University  of  Oxford  last  month,  which  tells  the 
same  story.  In  each  college  a  committee  made  care- 
ful preparations.  The  students  responded  with 
enthusiasm  to  the  call  that  summoned  them  to 
special  efforts  of  prayer.  When  the  day  came  for 
the  opening,  the  atmosphere  was  already  pente- 
costal.  The  students  at  Cambridge,  both  men  and 
women,  came  in  great  numbers  to  an  afternoon  ser- 
vice ;  and  in  the  evening  the  great  university  church 
was  crowded  with  the  men  only,  night  after  night. 
The  afternoon  services  were  somewhat  more 
"apologetic"  than  those  at  night.  They  were 
partly  intended  to  expound  and  justify  the  faith  to 
the  abler  students,  and  especially  to  those  who  are 
surrounded  by  hostile  criticism  of  orthodoxy  and 
even  of  Christianity  itself,  and  perhaps  were  yield- 


RETREAT 


99 


ing  to  it.  All  day  long  the  missioners  were  busy 
with  private  interviews,  solving  problems  of  faith 
and  morals  for  enquirers,  hearing  confessions, 
blessing  new  resolutions,  and  the  like.  The  effect 
on  the  university  was  immense;  and  now  Oxford, 
too,  has  the  same  story  to  tell.  Please  God,  the 
spiritual  reality  and  power,  that  has  thus  come  upon 
these  two  groups  of  the  ablest  of  our  young  men, 
will  be  of  untold  value  in  many  parts  of  our  Empire 
for  many  years  to  come. 

We  come  now  to  another  sphere  of  the  Holy 
Spirit's  working,  in  what  is  called  a  Retreat.  This 
also  is  an  occasion  of  great  spiritual  movement,  but 
it  is  of  a  different  character.  The  mission  is  like  the 
preaching  of  St.  John  the  Baptist  :  the  retreat  is 
like  our  Lord's  invitation  to  His  disciples  to  come 
apart  awhile  into  a  desert  place  with  Him. 

Quiet  and  close  communing  with  God  are  the 
essential  features  of  a  retreat.  Some  experienced 
priest  will  "conduct"  the  retreat,  just  as  a  mis- 
sioner  is  called  in  to  undertake  the  mission.  But 
different  qualities  are  required  of  him.  Not  con- 
version, so  much  as  growth  in  holiness,  is  the  object 
to  be  attained.  Those  who  assemble  will  be 
among  the  most  devout  of  the  laity,  or  else  a  group 
of  clergy  or  religious.  There  will  not  be  a  large 
body;  it  should  be  less  than  one  hundred,  if  the 
priest  is  to  have  enough  time  for  the  confessions 
and  other  private  ministrations  that  they  are  seek- 
ing. It  is  a  gain  if  those  who  come  together  are 
already  linked  in  some  sort  of  association  :  but, 
even  if  not,  they  are  allied  by  the  fact  that  they 
assemble  for  a  common  purpose. 


ioo  PROGRESS  OF  A  RETREAT 


These  are  the  main  features,  common  to  the  plan. 
In  other  respects  retreats  vary  very  much  from  one 
another  according  to  circumstances.  Some  last  for 
three  days  :  some  for  less,  a  few  for  more.  Some 
are  held  in  town,  some  in  country :  some  in 
monasteries,  others  in  different  places  where  accom- 
modation can  be  got,  e.g.  in  schools  or  colleges 
during  holiday  times.  Sometimes  a  bishop  will 
gather  his  clergy  together  at  the  cathedral  or  else- 
where for  a  diocesan  retreat.  A  theological  college 
generally  gives  opportunities  not  only  to  its  pre- 
sent members,  but  also  to  its  past  students.  A 
guild  or  society  will  have  its  annual  retreat,  and  so 
forth.  Indeed,  an  annual  retreat  is  becoming 
increasingly  a  regular  piece  of  spiritual  refresh- 
ment, not  only  for  the  religious,  but  also  for  clergy, 
and  for  men  and  women  of  the  laity. 

A  three  days'  retreat  usually  begins  on  a  Monday 
night  and  ends  on  the  following  Friday  morning. 
Daily  there  are  celebrations  of  the  Holy  Eucharist; 
five  or  six  other  services  at  intervals,  and  three  ad- 
dresses or  meditations  given  by  the  priest,  whocon- 
ducts  the  retreat.  These  addresses  form  a  closely 
connected  whole,  either  dealing  with  some  topic  or 
series  of  topics,  or  expounding  a  book  or  passage 
of  Holy  Scripture,  or  the  like.  They  are  not  so 
much  sermons,  as  stimulating  material  which  is  to 
be  used  by  the  hearers  in  their  private  meditation 
after  the  address  has  been  given.  They  are  pro- 
bably planned  to  form  a  progressive  series,  so  that 
the  retreatants  are  guided  on  from  one  point  to 
another.    Thus  they  advance,  or  led  up,  as  Moses 


QUIET  DAYS 


10 1 


was,  to  see  the  Promised  Land,  or  climbing  the 
Holy  Mountain  of  Transfiguration  in  company  with 
the  Master  Himself. 

Spiritual  guidance  of  a  varied  kind  is  thus  given 
in  the  addresses.  There  are  also  some  special 
devotions  made,  or  suggested,  as  appropriate  to  the 
subjects  which  are  handled :  and,  further,  there  is 
private  and  personal  guidance  available  for  all  who 
seek  it.  Such  are  some  of  the  duties  of  the  priest 
who  conducts  the  retreat.  Much  is  required  of 
him ;  but  the  main  benefit  that  comes  of  the  retreat 
is  the  soul's  own  communing  with  God.  Silence 
is  kept  throughout  the  time,  a  devotional  book  is 
read  during  the  meals,  and  everything  is  done  to 
facilitate  detachment  from  all  worldly  occupations 
and  ordinary  duties. 

For  people  who  have  little  leisure,  or  for  those 
who  are  beginners,  a  similar  devotion,  shorter  in 
duration,  is  often  held,  lasting  only  one  day.  In- 
deed, "  Quiet  Days,"  as  they  are  called,  are  be- 
coming a  very  common  feature  of  our  devotional 
life,  in  parishes  and  elsewhere.  For  those  who  are 
very  busy,  even  shorter  periods  are  utilised  in  the 
same  way.  On  some  Saturday  afternoon,  when 
there  is  the  weekly  half-holiday  in  mills  and  fac- 
tories, people  will  assemble  who  cannot  get  more 
time  free,  and  will  spend  their  half-day  in  retreat. 

At  our  house  at  Mirfield  we  have  long  been  able 
to  have  a  better  plan  than  this  for  busy  people. 
Several  times  a  year  we  collect  men  of  the  busiest 
classes  to  spend  a  Sunday  in  retreat.  This  lasts 
from  Saturday  evening  to  Sunday  evening,  when 


102 


CONVENTIONS 


most  of  them  have  to  return  home  in  order  to  begin 
the  new  week's  work  at  6  a.m.  on  Monday  morning. 
For  a  long  time  our  accommodation  has  been  in- 
adequate, and  we  have  not  been  able  to  receive  all 
those  who  wished  to  come  for  these  Sundays.  We 
are,  however,  now  building  a  new  wing  to  the 
community  house,  which  will  give  us  thirty  rooms 
for  retreatants.  This  movement  is  spreading  all  over 
England,  and  new  retreat  houses  are  being  estab- 
lished elsewhere.  Increasingly  in  these  busy  days 
men  welcome  the  opportunity  of  quiet  and  devotion. 
Men  who  have  come  once,  soon  come  again,  and 
bring  others.  Piety  is  warmed  and  cheered  by  the 
spiritual  atmosphere;  cares  and  troubles  are  laid 
down  for  the  moment,  and  grace  is  won  wherewith 
to  take  them  up  again.  God  is  sought ;  and  He  is 
found,  by  those  who  seek  Him,  to  be  very  near, 
and  to  abide  with  those  who  entrust  themselves  to 
His  grace  and  love  and  protection.  When  the 
retreat  is  over,  the  people  go  back  stronger  and 
warmer,  able  to  help  in  raising  the  spiritual  tem- 
perament of  their  whole  surroundings,  and  to  lead 
more  boldly  in  the  fight  for  God. 

We  use  the  term  "  Convention  "  to  describe 
another  form  of  spiritual  refreshment  of  more  recent 
origin.  It  is  not  perhaps  so  valuable  as  a  retreat, 
but  it  has  a  value  of  its  own,  especially  for  those 
who  are  not  yet  spiritually  ready  for  the  effort  and 
strain  of  a  retreat.  A  convention  is  usually  the 
joint  effort  of  a  town.  Three  or  four  days  are  set 
apart  for  it,  a  large  public  hall  is  engaged,  well- 
known  bishops  and  priests  are  invited  to  come  as 


IN  TOUCH  WITH  NONCONFORMISTS  103 


speakers,  and  a  plan  of  subjects  is  drawn  up.  Thus, 
though  the  speakers  are  designedly  varied,  a  cer- 
tain unity  is  ensured  by  the  programme.  A  great 
number  gather,  especially  at  night.  In  a  big  town 
there  may  be  two  or  three  thousand  present  then, 
and  perhaps  an  overflow  meeting  as  well.  The 
enthusiasm  thus  gathered  is  very  inspiring,  the 
singing  is  very  moving,  and  the  spiritual  atmo- 
sphere may  be  very  helpful. 

In  many  places  a  number  of  Nonconformists  will 
come,  and  freely  join  with  the  Churchmen  in  these 
gatherings.  In  this  way  they  afford  a  meeting 
point  in  prayer,  which  is  very  valuable.  Conven- 
tions have  done  much  to  remove  suspicions  and  pre- 
judices, to  destroy  party  rivalries  in  the  Church, 
and  to  bring  Nonconformists  to  a  better  view  of 
church  teaching  and  practice.  All  this  is  very  use- 
ful. But  there  is  none  of  the  quiet  of  the  retreat. 
The  common  meals,  the  common  Liturgy  and 
services,  the  common  silence  are  lacking.  The 
solemnity  of  the  church,  the  personal  guidance  of 
the  priest,  the  opportunity  of  confession,  the  silence 
— these  things,  and  many  mc  <-e  too,  the  retreat 
offers  and  the  convention  does  not.  But,  for  all 
that,  conventions  are  doing  a  valuable  work  for  us 
of  a  different  kind.  So  they  deserve  mention  side 
by  side  with  retreats  and  missions  as  pieces  of 
spiritual  machinery  which  God  has  greatly  blessed. 

You  may  be  thinking  perhaps  that  in  these 
lectures  I  have  said  much  too  much  about 
machinery,  movements,  organization,  methods  and 
the  like.    You  may  have  been  wanting  all  the  time 


104  DEFECTS  AND  WEAKNESSES 


to  hear  of  something  different.  You  may  have 
been  saying  to  yourselves  perhaps,  "That  is  all 
very  well  !  It  may  suit  these  bustling,  tiresomely 
practical  English  people  :  but  it  does  not  attract  us. 
It  is  quite  remote  from  what  we  love  and  look 
for  in  religion."  Well,  well  !  I  quite  recognize 
the  point.  I  know  enough  at  any  rate  about  Russia 
to  see  the  difference  of  religious  outlook  and  to 
appreciate  very  highly  the  Russian  point  of  view. 
But  I  would  like  to  say  three  things  briefly  in 
anticipation  of  such  criticism  :  they  shall  be  my 
apology  for  these  lectures,  and  so  I  will  bring  them 
to  an  end. 

First  I  would  plead  that  my  task  was  to  try  to 
give  you  some  account  of  English  religious  life. 
That  is  what  I  have  tried  to  do.  I  know  that  in 
many  ways  it  is  a  very  defective  life,  full  of  faults 
and  failings  and  sins  :  but  there  it  is,  and  I  do  not 
wish  to  make  it  out  better  than  it  is.  The  Church, 
as  well  as  the  individual,  needs  to  take  to  heart  the 
parable  of  the  Pharisee  and  the  Publican.  Because 
it  has  not  done  so  in  past  days,  these  grievous 
divisions  have  come  :  and  they  go  on  because  in  our 
different  quarters  of  the  globe  we  still  are  inclined 
to  go  on  saying,  "  God,  I  thank  thee  that  I  am  not  as 
others  are."  It  is  penitence  that  churches  want. 
When  each  broken  part  of  Christendom  can  smite 
upon  its  breast  and  say,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me  a 
sinner,"  then  they  will  all  find  themselves  at  one 
again.  Some  words  have  been  running  in  my  head 
ever  since  I  was  honoured  by  your  invitation  to 
come  here :  they  are  these  of  St.  James,  "  Confess 


LIFE  AND  GROWTH 


105 


your  faults  one  to  another,  and  pray  for  one 
another,  that  ye  may  be  healed."  They  seem  to 
me  to  go  to  the  root  of  the  matter  and  to  apply  to 
churches  as  well  as  to  individuals. 

Secondly,  I  would  say  that  I  am  well  aware  that 
much  of  what  is  valuable  to  us  would  not  be  so 
to  you.  It  is  not  to  be  expected,  or  desired,  that 
everybody  should  be  exactly  alike.  The  Body  of 
Christ  is  made  up  of  many  members,  and  there  is 
great  diversity  among  them.  It  is  not  desirable 
that  the  eye  should  try  to  become  like  the  ear,  or 
vice  versa.  But  it  is  highly  desirable  that  both 
the  ear  and  the  eye  should  understand  one  another's 
different  ways  and  gifts  and  functions,  and  should 
co-operate  together. 

To  facilitate  that  understanding  is  the  object  of 
these  lectures  and  of  our  twin  societies,  the  English 
and  the  Russian.  So  that,  even  if  much  that  I  have 
said  may  seem  to  you  strange,  it  is  all  to  the  good, 
that  we  should  have  had  this  opportunity  of  saying 
it  and  hearing  it. 

Lastly,  if  I  have  said  much  of  activities,  move- 
ments and  the  like,  I  would  plead  in  justification 
that  my  subject  was  Life  in  the  English  Church, 
and  that  such  things  are  characteristics  of  life. 
Life  is  activity,  movement,  and  power  of  adapta- 
tion. The  opposite  is  death.  The  Body  of  Christ 
is  a  living  body  :  therefore  while  there  is  an  element 
of  it  which  is  permanent  and  unchangeable,  never- 
theless all  the  rest  is  in  a  perpetual  state  of  change. 
It  adapts  itself  to  its  surroundings;  it  absorbs  new 
material ;  it  grows  upon  what  is  good,  it  discards 


NEED  OF  CO-OPERATION 


what  is  useless  or  harmful.  By  such  processes  as 
these  it  continues  in  living  union  with  Christ  the 
Head,  and  continues  to  be  the  organism  through 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  brings  the  world  progres- 
sively to  a  fuller  and  fuller  knowledge  of  the  one 
perfected  Revelation  of  God  once  for  all  accom- 
plished in  Jesus  Christ. 

And  within  this  living  Body,  too,  diversity  is 
(within  limits)  just  as  much  a  characteristic  as 
unity.  Another  great  cause  of  our  disunion  has 
been  that  we  have  forgotten  the  infinite  diversity 
of  life,  and  have  constantly  been  trying  to  force 
God's  diversified  universe  to  fit  in  to  narrow  little 
categories  of  our  own.  The  spirit  of  legalism  and 
papalism  has  continually  said,  "  What  we  do  is 
right;  and  anything  else  is  wrong."  And  this 
spirit  is  by  no  means  peculiar  to  Rome  :  it  is  shared 
by  many  of  the  fractions  of  Christendom,  if  not  by 
all.    Therein  lies  another  cause  of  our  disunion. 

The  great  task  of  orthodox  and  catholic  Chris- 
tianity is  to  discern  in  every  age  what  parts  of  its 
activities  and  powers  belong  to  that  portion  of  itself 
which  is  permanent,  unchanging,  and  inalienable, 
and  to  maintain  those  inviolable  :  while  at  the  same 
time  giving  free  play  to  all  those  moving,  progres- 
sing, developing  forces  within  itself,  which  life, 
just  because  it  is  life,  exhibits  in  a  continual  state 
of  energetic  and  purposeful  change.  The  Church 
must  keep  what  is  fixed,  fixed  :  and  leave  what  is 
free,  free. 

It  is  only  by  the  co-operation  of  all  parts  of  the 
Body  that  this  task  can  be  properly  carried  out. 


THE  HEAVENLY  VISION 


107 


At  present  it  is  not  done.  Some  people  over-value 
movement,  and  are  ready  for  the  sake  of  change 
to  alter  -what  is  unchanging,  or  to  surrender  what 
should  be  inalienable.  Others  who  value  stability, 
are  slow  to  learn  or  to  unlearn,  slow  to  rise  at 
God's  call,  slow  to  progress  to  new  fields  of  know- 
ledge or  conquest.  This  is  true  of  individuals  in 
all  ages  and  it  has  been  equally  true  of  churches. 
Now,  when  there  is  disunion,  the  peril  is  enhanced. 
Then  a  restless  fever  alternates  in  the  Body  with 
numb  paralysis,  where  there  should  be  a  well- 
balanced  health  and  vigour.  The  static  and  dynamic 
forces  of  life  seem  to  be  alien  to  one  another, 
whereas  they  should  be  conjoined  and  complemen- 
tary. Further  disunion  is  the  result.  And  it  must  be 
so  until  stability  and  movement,  unity  and  .variety, 
each  have  their  due  valuation.  At  this  opening  of 
the  twentieth  century,  the  Holy  Spirit  is  bringing 
us  to  see  this  more  clearly.  May  we  be  obedient 
to  the  heavenly  vision  ! 

So  I  would  plead  for  our  bustling  English  ways 
in  Religion,  that,  whether  attractive  or  not,  whether 
of  great  importance  or  not,  they  at  least  have  a 
place  in  the  Body ;  and  they,  with  many  other  char- 
acteristics that  go  along  with  them,  may  be,  after 
all,  some  little  contribution  to  the  fulness  of  the  life 
that  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 


NOTES 


Lecture  I.  : 

1,  p.  3.  The  description  given  in  this  sentence  would  not 
be  equally  true  of  the  Irish,  whose  national  character  has  many 
more  points  of  natural  contact  with  the  Russian  temperament, 
than  are  to  be  found  in  the  normal  English  or  Scottish 
character. 

2,  p.  8.  I  have  used  here  and  elsewhere  the  term  "  sect  " 
because  it  is  a  word  that  Russians  understand  :  for  an  English 
audience  I  should  have  chosen  some  other  description  in 
preference. 

3,  p.  22. '  The  maintenance  of  a  connexion  with  the  State 
does  not  necessarily  imply  the  continuance  of  the  connexion  in 
its  present  form,  which  is  unsatisfactory  from  many  points  of 
view.  At  the  present  moment  a  Committee  is  sitting,  appointed 
by  the  two  Archbishops  at  the  request  of  the  Representative 
Church  Council  to  enquire  how  the  spiritual  independence  of  the 
Church  can  be  secured  along  with  the  national  recognition  of 
religion. 

Lecture  II : 

4,  p.  35.  It  is  not  intended  to  draw  a  hard  and  fast  line 
separating  the  ways  into  two  distinct  ones.  The  High  Mass 
is  always  the  ideal,  and  every  service  performed  with  less  of 
ceremonial  should  be  in  such  approximation  to  the  highest  as 
is  then  and  there  feasible.  Between  it  and  the  Low  Mass  there 
is  room  for  many  different  grades  of  ceremonial  completeness  or 
incompleteness. 

5,  p.  37.  The  Russian  Trebnik,  or  "  Book  of  Needs,"  com- 
prises the  ceremonies  attendant  upon  childbirth,  Baptism, 
Penance,  Marriage,  Services  for  the  Sick  and  the  Dead,  the 
Blessing  of  Holy  Water,  etc. 

6,  p.  39.    The  English  custom  is  not  to  distinguish  Seven 


09 


I  10 


NOTES 


Sacraments  from  the  rest  as  the  scholastics  did  and  as  the 
Eastern  churches  have  learnt  to  do  from  them;  but  to  dis- 
tinguish, as  in  early  days,  the  two  greater  sacraments  which 
Our  Lord  Himself  instituted  and  are  "  generally  necessary  to 
salvation  "  from  other  rites,  without  denying  to  them  in  a  lesser 
sense  the  title  of  sacrament. 

7,  d.  51  The  use  of  unction  in  sickness  is  not  now  pre- 
scribed, but  is  permissive.  In  recent  years  it  has  been  increas- 
ingly demanded,  and  given,  both  as  a  means  for  recovery  and 
also  as  a  preparation  for  death. 

Lecture  III.  : 

8,  p.  67.  This  is  the  small  remnant  that  remains  of  the 
ancient  practice  of  coucelebration,  in  which  the  priest  joined 
with  the  bishop  in  consecrating  the  Holy  Sacrament. 

9,  p.  76.  The  original  attempt  of  the  Crown  was  to  assemble 
the  clergy  with  the  rest  in  Parliament  :  but  this  attempt  was  re- 
garded as  an  invasion  of  the  privileges  of  the  clergy,  and  they 
were  allowed  to  meet  in  a  separate  bod}'  to  which  they  were 
summoned  by  the  Archbishop  acting  under  a  mandate  from 
the  Crown. 

10,  p.  77.  The  chief  post-reformation  canons  are  to  be  found 
in  the  great  code  of  1603.  Others  passed  in  1640  have  never 
secured  such  a  position.  Since  then  few  canons  have  been 
made.  Convocation  was  in  abeyance  during  the  Great  Rebel- 
lion, and  again  for  over  a  century  from  the  second  decade  of 
the  eighteenth  century  down  to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth. 
Since  it  has  recovered  its  vitality  it  has  grown  steadily  in 
importance  again.  The  canons  that  it  has  passed  are,  however, 
few  and  inadequate  to  supply  the  place  of  man}'  in  the  earlier 
codes  which  are  obsolete. 

11,  p.  79.  An  admirable  summary  of  the  early  history  of 
monasticism  is  to  be  found  in  Abbot  Butler's,  Chapter  xviii.,  in 
the  Cambridge  Mediceval  History,  Vol.  1,  pp.  521-542.  For 
a  treatment  of  the  history  as  a  wh^e,  reference  may  be  made 
to  Fr.  Bull's,  The  Revival  of  l,ie  Religious  Life. 


Shcrrat'  ..no,  Hughes,  Printers,  London  and  Manchester. 


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